You may have read Sramana Mitra’s Harvard Business Review article, When Big Companies Support Startups, They Both Make More Money: http://bit.ly/1fu1x9k
We hear it from many of our platform vendor partners: “Developers ask us for incubation support, but we do not have the capacity!”
Of course.
Every platform vendor’s goal is to have hundreds, if not thousands, tens of thousands, ideally hundreds of thousands of developers building applications on their platforms.
Yet, it is not within their capacity to incubate companies en-masse.
Imagine, however, how much more credibility it brings to a developer network if it not only brings a platform to market, but a scalable incubator to support those developers?
More here: http://bit.ly/1g1uvxt
2. Mission
• Offer a scalable corporate incubation
program that can help corporations groom
entrepreneurs developing on their
platforms globally
3. Observation
• Platforms are a major trend in technology
• Developing eco-systems around them is a
key goal for technology corporations
4. Framework
• The 1M/1M Incubator-in-a-Box offers an
affordable, easy-to-implement, easy-to-scale
virtual methodology
• Includes online curriculum, weekly
mentoring roundtables, and connecting of
the dots
• $1000 annual membership fee per
Entrepreneur (team)
5. Philosophy
• Case study based learning
• Inclusive, not exclusive
• Draw inspiration from the global 1M/1M
community of entrepreneurs
• Moderated, methodology based
7. Broad Cultural Shift
• Incorporate weekly FREE Online Public
Roundtables to the events calendar
• Encourage people to attend to get business
help, not just technical assistance
8. Run Contest
• Make it high visibility
• Encourage everyone in the eco-system to
participate, apply
• Winners get 1M/1M scholarships to gain
access to a formal incubation program
• Repeat the contests every quarter to keep
the excitement alive
9. Incubatees
• Are encouraged to
• Master the curriculum
• Attend weekly private roundtables
• Pitch at the roundtables and get feedback
• Follow the methodology to get product to market
• Use PR platform to gain visibility
• Gain connections to customers, channel partners, investors,
media, analysts
• Gauge fundability of the business, and if appropriate, raise
funding using the program
10. Additional Outcomes
• Corporation may
• Invest
• Acquire
• Form channel partnerships
• Based on projects in the incubation program
• 1M/1M can screen and recommend
11. Privacy &
Confidentiality
• The goal of the program is scalability,
including financial
• Hence, we trade off 1-on-1 mentoring in
favor of group roundtables
• Corporations can offer ‘custom’ or ‘private’
mentoring sessions at $750/hour
• Entrepreneurs can also buy for themselves as
needed
12. Financials
• To engage 1000 entrepreneurs
• 10 Scholarships per quarter = $10k
• 40 Scholarships per year = $40k
• Plus, 1-2 Manager Accounts = $1k-2k
13. Financials
• To engage 5000 entrepreneurs
• 50 Scholarships per quarter = $50k
• 200 Scholarships per year = $200k
• Plus, 5-10 Manager Accounts = $5k-$10k
14. Outcome: Create a thriving, high
energy, eco-system full of
entrepreneurs who not only “develop”
products, but also thrive as businesses.