I am never obsessed with where the original idea comes from, that detachment helps me to look at things from an open mind and therefore I am best poised to take an idea to a successful conclusion. I am equally excited making other people’s ideas (OPI) becoming real but I still like incubating at arm's length. I get tremendous amount of satisfaction seeing these people succeed...more than the financial gain.
On average are seeing one incubation prospect every week. The first question I have us “Do they have an insanely crazy, kick-ass disruptive business ideas and they want to change the world with?” If yes, I go the second question, “Do they work well under constraints?” I’m a big believer that constraints inspire creativity and it is a true test of strategy. It forces you to bring out the creative side. Think Flickr, " I think that had a lot to do with why we were able to iterate and innovate so fast.” according to co-founder Caterina Fake.
Big incubation set-up didn’t do well historically simply because they were big, such as IdeaLab and Internet Capital Group that raised hundreds of millions but didn't return anything close to what they were supposed to. The role as incubator is not to provide seed money; it is about providing resources, advice and infrastructure to allow the idea to become investable. Sometimes money doesn’t help and it pushes the business to the wrong direction.
First thing is raise less and spend less. The less money you spend, the less money you need to properly incubate. Testing ideas as cheap as possible reduces overall investment. Don't invest a ton in infrastructure and let your incubator provides them.
The second thing is to play fast and build fast. Visualize your concepts quickly and test them out fast. Being slow means competitors can get into a space before you have time to breathe. Also, the more ideas you can generate and play with, the more chances you have of hitting on something worthwhile.
If something is failing, change and adapt fast and don’t money at failing projects. Agility is the beauty of start-up, you must know how to use it to your best advantage.
Another on common mistake float at the creative, idea stage for too long and don't have what it takes to stay with an idea over time and push it to the next level. Discovering people who are like this is very hard, so beware. So another advantage of working with us as incubator is we relentless push to make sure ideas evolve and plans get executed.
Incubation is sexy and fun. Generate innovative, cool ideas give people a mission in life. Create new businesses that disrupt the big guys is highly satisfying. Think about finding the next Facebook or FlickR. It is unbridled innovation … exploiting the full value of business mistakes. Incubation (for me) is the business of exploiting mistakes (preferably others) to create superior return on investments.
There is another reason I like incubation, it is the uncertainty and success depends so much on that uncertainty. It is a balance between making things happen (fast) and letting things happen. Great things unfold for smart people who are devoted to change the world (I am putting a team of smartest people I can find and afford). There is another side which is about letting things unfold in its own sweet way. While one door closes another one opens, once you let go of what you believe was the best, new space is created for something even better to come. Because every ending ushers in a brand new beginning. Did I sound too zen?
