However, thoughtful people will realize that the concept of incubation has merit because start-up companies will always be able to benefit from reduction or elimination of time spent doing administrative tasks that are not part of their core business. Incubators that provide access to top quality services and expert management and have reasonable expectations about the time needed for a business to get up and running will succeed. Many incubators plan to tap into what they see as trapped intellectual property sitting in corporations. Entrepreneurialism does not exist in many corporate settings, where employees either don't know how or have no incentive to implement a new technology in the form of a new company. Independent incubators can offer their full suite of start-up services and expertise to corporations to tap these ideas and bring them to market quickly.
Incubators come in numerous forms.
Some are venture capitalists that have added things like legal and accounting services to give portfolio companies a more complete offering and a greater chance of success. In all cases, what is really necessary is management experience and a deep network of contacts that can be leveraged for the portfolio company. Incubators that can leverage such assets for a fair price will attract the best portfolio companies and both will be successful. The average incubation period has been eight to nine months in the past year or two. However, incubation depends on market conditions more heavily than other businesses because what the business is made up of is vulnerable, young companies.