The Varick Street NYU-Poly Incubator: Best In NYC?

The incubator has one single goal. To help create great companies that will call NYC home.

From the Business Insider:

“It’s very rare that a joint effort between the public, private, and education sector comes together to produce meaningful results. However, The Varick Street Incubator may be a shining example and roadmap for other cities to follow on how to foster tech innovation.

After spending time at various incubators in the city, it very well may be that the Varick Street incubator is the top place in NYC for new entrepreneurs to call home. If you get the opportunity to be at Varick Steet, you enjoy a lot of benefits. The incubator does not ask for any equity in your company. The rent is really affordable and includes a lot of amenities that are not free at other incubators. Best of all, you get access to high quality interns / employees from NYU, potential seed investors, NYU faculty advisors, and assistance from dozens of other private partners involved with the incubator. Probably one of the best benefits is that several serial entrepreneurs call the incubator home and serve as mentors and motivation for first time founders…”

READ FULL ARTICLE [web]
Inside view of the Incubator [web]
Varick Street Incubator [web]
NYC Seed [web]
NYC Venture Connect [web]

Innovation Endeavors – Eric Schmidt’s Newest VC Fund

Innovation Endeavors is testing new methods, including a Survivor-style startup competition, to build tech companies

From Bloomberg Businessweek:

“Last December, 16 aspiring tech entrepreneurs were picked to compete for the chance to build a Silicon Valley startup. After an intensive, 48-hour session of team-building exercises and brainstorming, a group of three people who hadn’t previously known each were chosen to create a business: Charles Wang, 36, a psychiatrist; Monisha Perkash, 37, founder of a college financing service; and Andrew Chang, 27, a former energy analyst for Al Gore’s climate change nonprofit. With $150,000, free office space in downtown Palo Alto, and a roster of industry veterans as mentors, the trio tested out dozens of different ideas over the next five months. The team considered businesses around food supply chains, smart grids, and more. Ultimately they decided to make a high-tech remedy for back pain…”

READ FULL ARTICLE [web]
Innovation Endeavors [web]

Ben Franklin teams with DreamIt Ventures to keep startups in Philly

The partnership creates an easy path for local follow-on investment by Ben Franklin and local angels to help support the company as it seeks its Series A financing round.

From Technically Philly:

“DreamIt Ventures has proved it can incubate successful startups. Now it turns to a greater challenge: keeping them in Philadelphia.

The University City-based startup incubator is partnering with Ben Franklin Technology Partners to create “DreamIt Plus” an investment fast track for DreamIt grads to ensure they have access to the follow-on capital that often drives incubated companies to move out of the city when graduating DreamIt…”

READ FULL ARTICLE [web]
Ben Franklin to Launch DreamIt Plus Investment Program [press release]
DreamIt Ventures [web]
Ben Franklin Tech Partners [web]

What’s Really Going on in the VC Industry, and What Does it Mean for Startups?

This is an excellent read for entrepreneurs and investors…

Entrepreneur turned VC, Mark Suster, gives his take on recent shifts impacting the VC industry, and how newcos will need to adapt.

As the “right sizing” of the VC industry is in play, “…startups that do get funded, will build stronger businesses…”

Both Sides of the Table [read full article]
Mark Suster [twitter]

How Incubators Speed the Start-up Process

Bottom Line: Investors, entrepreneurs, and city officials need to get on the accelerator bandwagon.

“There are a couple dozen seed accelerators around the U.S. We could use a whole lot more. The key to getting started is a great group of mentors to draw people in. Though most seed accelerators focus on Web or mobile-device plays, the model could be adopted for other kinds of businesses.” Inc. Magazine (read full article)

YCombinator (website)
TechStars (website)
Capital Factory (website)