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Entrepreneurship & Startups vocabulary · Startup Ecosystem

Incubator

Meaning in entrepreneurship & startups, with examples

/ˈɪŋkjubeɪtər/nounCommon term

In entrepreneurship & startups, incubator means: An organisation that supports very early startups over a longer period, offering office space, advice, training and sometimes access to funding.

In Turkish: kuluçka merkezi, girişim kuluçka merkezi

How it is used

Incubators are often run by universities, public bodies, technology parks or large companies. Startups are accepted into, based at or supported by an incubator. Unlike accelerators, many incubators do not take equity.

Example sentences

  1. We spent our first year in the university incubator, where the desks were free.

  2. The incubator helped us find our first pilot customer through its network.

Common collocations

  • university incubator
  • business incubator
  • join an incubator
  • incubation programme
  • acceleratorA fixed-term programme, often three to six months, that gives a group of startups mentoring, training, contacts and usually a small investment in exchange for equity.
  • mentorAn experienced person who gives a founder advice, feedback and support over time, usually without being paid, based on their own business experience.
  • early-stageDescribes a startup in its first phase, before strong revenue or product-market fit, or an investor who puts money into companies at this phase.
  • entrepreneurA person who sees a business opportunity and starts a new company to use it, accepting financial risk in the hope of profit and growth.

More terms: Startup Ecosystem

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