These stocks skyrocketed to prominence and fell just as quickly.
Successful incubator seems like a contradiction in terms.
That's not true in San Jose, where the Software Business Cluster, an incubator formed five years ago, has a strong record of helping entrepreneurs develop their ideas, find financing and continue to grow once they're on their own. Of the 61 companies that graduated, all but five are still alive, including those that have been acquired, says Chuck Erickson, the cluster's managing director. The Software Business Cluster and its less successful brethren are similar in many ways. They sift through hundreds of ideas and business plans, seeking the ideas, and the entrepreneurs likely to be most successful. The chosen few receive low-cost office space, basic services such as phones and copiers and help in areas that range from accounting and human resources to marketing and Web development.