BUSINESS INCUBATOR ASSESSMENT

BUILDING CAPACITY FOR NEW BUSINESS VENTURES

For business incubators, the pressing question is always one of how effective the incubator is at supporting the new business ventures that are trying to take root under its watch, in terms of educating them, facilitating their needs, and helping them to move forward in their journeys, including in most cases helping them to gain exposure to prospective customers and investors.

To assess this, one must examine – in detail – five (5) key areas of the incubator, namely:

• Management — Its Operating Procedures and Operating Budget.
• People Resources — Its Leadership, Mentors/Advisors/Coaches, Trainers, and Administrative Support Staff.
• Ecosystem / Network Resources — Its Support Businesses, Prospective Customers, Investor Community, and Research Partners.
• Community Resources — Its Community Managers, Training & Community Events, and Library Resources.
• Facilities Resources — Its Spaces, Environmental Factors, Furnishings, IT Resources, Building & Safety Code Compliance, Collaboration Tools & Materials, Advanced Design Elements, User & Design Research Facilities, Prototyping Facilities & External Prototyping Resources, and Test Facilities & External Testing Resources.

By intentionally addressing and mastering each of these five key areas, any given incubator can become highly effective at supporting its resident business ventures.   It takes a clear focus, however, on building capacity in each of these areas if the incubator is to achieve recognized status as a highly-effective incubator.

The need, therefore, is to know – as a business incubator – how far along one's incubator is, and how well it stacks up against the best in the world (incubators such as, for example, The Houston Technology Center, The Technology Innovation Center, Capital Factory, TechNexus, and Seedcamp).

To assess this, we carry out Global Innovation Institute's Accredited Business Incubator Assessment Process.   This is a comprehensive on-site assessment that critically examines each of the above five areas, recording yes/no answers to a series of pertinent questions in each area.

Learn more about Global Innovation Institute's Business Incubator Accreditation at www.gini.org/abi/.

THE ENGAGEMENT

The Business Incubator Assessment Engagement typically follows these steps:

1. We begin by listening to you so as to understand your goals for conducting the Business Incubator Assessment and/or achieving GInI accreditation of the incubator.
2. We then walk you through the overall assessment process to ensure that you understand the process correctly and in full.
3. We then schedule the on-site assessment (including a detailed interview agenda) and set dates for when you will provide us with the upfront documentation (for the preliminary document review).   Preliminary documents are to be provided to us no later than one month prior to the scheduled on-site assessment.
4. Upon the scheduled date, we bring our Assessors into the incubator and carry out the scheduled interviews with your designated leaders, staff, and startup teams.   The on-site assessment typically takes just one day to complete, though in some cases this can be a long day.   We will establish this duration with you beforehand when scheduling.
5. Afterward, our Assessors will complete the BIxAAR and submit to GInI.   This typically happens within two weeks of completing the on-site assessment.
6. GInI will then conduct its review of our BIxAAR and thereafter notify you of its determination, as well as share with you a copy of the BIxAAR.   This process typically takes 4 weeks or less after receiving the BIxAAR from us.
7. Following GInI's review, you may contact us with any questions about the BIxAAR, or arrange to have us come present it to your organization in person.
8. Subsequent to this, and as desired, we can also be retained for consulting services to help you address the BIxAAR's gap findings, and in so doing improve the overall effectiveness of your incubator.   See our Corporate Incubators & Accelerators Consulting page for more details on this.