Finding an Incubator for your business idea

by Startacus Admin

Ben Jones from AberInnovation shares some advice and tips on choosing the right business incubator for your startup

If you are a startup founder with some great ideas, you might want to consider finding a business accelerator or an incubator to help you develop them.  Programmes of this kind are an excellent way to develop entrepreneurial skills and mindsets.  They are designed to help bring the best ideas and business propositions to life. 

You may find the names ‘Business Incubator’ and ‘Business Accelerator’ being used interchangeably though there seems to be increasing agreement on the difference between them. 

In broad terms, accelerators tend to last for a few months and will equip participants with business skills and knowledge via workshops, mentorship and networking. Business incubators usually operate on flexible time frames. The end when the business has a proposition to pitch to investors or to potential customers. 

Incubation programmes tend to adopt a more flexible approach to their participants’ needs, reacting to and addressing them on a case-by-case basis. 

Entrepreneur Handbook lists 153 accelerators and start-ups in the UK alone, so you’re bound to have lots of choice.

With a list that long you might feel daunted, so let me share some tips on how to choose the right incubator for your startup. 

Sector specific or sector agnostic?

Some business incubators are sector agnostic, others are very sector-specific. Some require you to have a solid business idea and a plan, others want growth-stage businesses, whereas with some you don’t even need an idea to begin with – they will give you a proposition to develop and hone. So, the first step is to look for an incubator that suits the stage your business is currently at. 

Look for one that works specifically in your sector. A tailored, sector-specific package of support and expertise will bring your idea forward in leaps and bounds. Working with experts who are well-versed in the emerging trends within a particular industry and networked with the big players in that space could provide a real fillip to your fledgling business. 

If your business is less technical, or there aren’t any suitable incubators for your sector or niche, then a sector agnostic incubator can be a good choice as it will give you access to experts across a range of businesses areas. If choosing one of these incubators, the next few points become even more important when making your final decision.

The Cardiff Medicentre is a business incubator focussing on health,  wellbeing and the life sciences, while BioAccelerate at AberInnovation is designed to bring innovations in biotechnology, agri-tech and food and drink to life. 

For a more generalist incubator, London-based Seedcloud supports all ideas in the B2B space while the long-established YCombinator is sector agnostic and has two intakes per year. 

Access to academic expertise

As you might expect, universities are a hotbed of ideas and innovation. They bring together pre-eminent scholars, world-leading facilities and significant tranches of funding in an attempt to solve some of the world’s most pressing challenges and to create new knowledge and understanding for the benefit of society as a whole. 

Done right, university-affiliated business incubators can greatly enhance this knowledge exchange mission and allow startups to capitalise on new findings and insights coming from the academic base emergent at universities. In other words, you want to be as close as possible to where research, development and innovation are thriving.

This is particularly important if your business is tech, sciences, health, or climate-related.  Where access to experts, research, or testing facilities is important, linking with a University can be a major benefit. 

Top class facilities 

Many businesses, particularly startups, can only dream of being able to afford some of the equipment that universities have access to. Innovation does not come cheap, and machinery and specialist kit costing millions are often required. Fortunately, for innovative companies, universities are often happy to collaborate and allow use of such equipment via specific R&D projects. 

Some of the better business incubators will have easy access to the requisite equipment and will actively encourage their cohorts to make the most of the facilities on offer in order to develop their propositions. Even better, they can provide training, technicians, and academic expertise to help you on your way and to make the most of the services available. 

So, think about the technology you may need, or the testing facilities that will help take you from beta to launch. And then look for an incubator will provide access to this.

For example, AberInnovation has a newly-built pilot scale biorefinery connected to its Future Food Centre. Having both capabilities under one roof makes it a unique proposition in the UK and a perfect site for circular economy innovations. Similarly, incubation programmes offered by the European Marine Science Park in Scotland have all the equipment and facilities (not to mention the ocean environments!) needed for marine science companies. 

Network access

Having developed and refined your idea, you are very likely to need to bring others in to help. A good incubator will be well networked with key professional services that you can access over the course of the programme, such as intellectual property lawyers, human resources experts, finance support and so on. What’s more, you’ll want a programme that has strong links to the venture capital community.

Most incubators offer pitching opportunities, but be mindful of the makeup of those panels. Are you going to be in front of the right people? Having worked on your idea tirelessly, you’re going to want your efforts to be rewarded with a chance to impress those groups or individuals possessing the wherewithal to help you embark upon your next step.

Opportunity for funding

It’s also worth drilling down into exactly what’s on offer at these pitching events. What are you pitching for? Some panels might boast the right organisations, but they may be there in more of a feedback-giving role. You’ll want to know whether there’s actual ‘money on the table’ at the end of the programme. Moreover, what are the stipulations attached to spending or drawing down this money? Some terms and conditions will be stringent and rather onerous, while some programmes are happy to take a more hands-off approach to how you spend it – within reason of course!

Consider location carefully

The age of dashing around the country to meet prospective collaborators, clients and stakeholders may be broadly behind us. It’s fair to say that recent events have shown us what a credible job video-conferencing programmes can do in lieu of actual face-to-face meetings. With that said, it would be unwise to disregard location completely when it comes to choosing an incubator. 

A good programme should be hands-on and for that there is no substitute for in-person interaction. By incubation stage, you should also be in a position to begin prototyping or iterating designs of your innovative product or service as well. This means actually making use of all the eminent expertise, great facilities and top-of-the-line equipment on offer. 

Consider all the different aspects of the programme and what you and your startup needs.  Then, ideally find an incubator located somewhere that is within commuting distance. Good luck!

Ben Jones is from AberInnovation. Aberystwyth Innovation and Enterprise Campus provides world-leading facilities and expertise within the biotechnology, agri-tech, and food and drink sectors. Set in stunning scenery between the Cambrian Mountains and the Irish Sea, the £40.5m Campus offers an ideal environment for business and academic collaboration to flourish.

 

 

 

 

 

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Published on: 4th February 2021