I’m in the process of writing up a document that outlines all of the things that need to be considered when creating a startup incubator (like Y-Combinator). When I’m finished, I’ll post it as an open document so anyone can go in and improve it.
Here are what I believe to be the five most important questions to answer:
- What are the financial and non-financial goals of the program’s investors, and over what time frame? What is the business model for the program?
- How mature do you want the teams to be at the end of the program: live product, revenue generating, angel ready, VC ready? This affects which teams you accept.
- What is the ideal founding team and what is the minimum viable founding team?
- What do you do (or not do) if things go wrong with a team or their product?
- Will there be further involvement or investment at the end of the summer?
Obviously, there are other factors like investment terms, office requirements, speaker series, etc, but I think these are the top five most important. What do you think are the most important?
