If you’re an entrepreneur with an idea for an Internet startup, there’s a growing collection of venture incubators around the country ready to help you launch it—Y Combinator, TechStars, and 500Startups are a few of the best known ones. There’s even a new incubator for health technology companies: Rock Health, which we covered here a couple of weeks ago. But until recently, innovators in the cleantech or green energy sectors didn’t have many places to turn for the early-stage capital, mentorship, and business connections that incubators provide.
That could start to change this fall with the opening of San Francisco-based Greenstart, which claims to be the first venture incubator focused exclusively on cleantech. Founded by three serial entrepreneurs from the world of online automotive media, the incubator is searching for eight to 10 companies to join its first three-month session, which will start September 12. The terms at Greenstart are similar to those at Internet incubators: $25,000 per team to cover living expenses during the session, in return for a 3 to 10 percent equity stake in each company. The goal, says Greenstart co-founder Mitch Lowe, is not necessarily to create 10 revenue-producing companies, but to make sure that each team exits the incubator with a well-defined product that’s been validated with real-world customers.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Will the Internet Venture Incubator Model Work in Cleantech? Greenstart Is About to Find Out | Xconomy
Author:
Wade Roush
