Sheridan has occupied a corner of bainlab since last September, recruiting personnel, meeting with suppliers and, as is common with start-ups, making the dozens of decisions that will determine the future of his company. In part, incubators sprung up because many large venture capital firms were unwilling to bother with the small amounts of capital and human resources necessary to develop start-ups. Incubators stepped in to fill the void. Some incubators come up with their own ideas for companies and then put together teams to develop them. In all this frenzy, incubators have also drawn fire.
Critics charge that the many new entrants have diluted the concept.
Now located in a small office in London's City, Fry hopes to launch his site in May. At first, he spent much of his time visiting industry folk like website designers and venture capitalists, recording the conversations in a large, purple notebook. He is now concentrating on recruiting. We've had to develop our own learning curve. In the hurtle of the Internet, such talk is anathema to incubators, who claim that units can update start-ups on issues like investor sentiment, thus saving time.