Business incubators and the technology start-ups they funded enjoyed phenomenal success in the 1990s, only to see many of their bubbles burst at the turn of the millennium. Yet according to Silicon Valley insider Sally Richards, "Technology never rests and companies are undervalued right now. Fortunes are born out of this kind of market chaos." A confidante to the technology industry's premier powerbrokers, Richards brings you a first-person view of both sides of the negotiating table in Inside Business Incubators and Corporate Ventures.
Richards's exhaustive interviews of all the industry's pioneers, coupled with fascinating case studies of successful incubators, will introduce you to the prime sources of start-up capital as the technology industry contracts and expands. You will also learn where many of the strictly for-profit incubators went wrong and why many of the successful incubators today are those aligned with city or state governments, universities, or established corporations on a nonprofit basis.
Whether you are an executive looking to reposition or launch a new incubator, an entrepreneur trying to determine the best source of funding, or an individual investor who wants to know where to place your money now, Inside Business Incubators and Corporate Ventures will prove a gold mine of information on the past, present, and future of business incubation.
Foreword by James Robbins, Executive Director, Panasonic Concepts Center; CEO, Business Cluster Development; and Executive Director, Software Business Clusters
