I mean, this can (and likely will) be really beneficial for those who get in... but what/where's the endgame?
Living expenses for 10 weeks and meals for however many people, plus high-profile speakers? This is going to be expensive, even with the benefits you two mentioned.
Just a note: I'm not "suspicious" of Red Gate's motives (I believe them when they say that this is catch-free and that they made this program to help others); I'm curious as to who is funding this and why.
Speculating, but apart from the benevolence aspect, probably to establish close links with companies that will use Red Gate products, and ideally (re)sell them to other client companies (hence desire on business-orientated rather that consumer-orientated startups), as well as to ideally make an investment or take equity in any companies that go through the process at a later stage.
But why not ask them directly?...
Neil Davidson
neil.davidson@red-gate.com
twitter: @neildavidson
(http://blog.businessofsoftware.org/)
Amir Chaudhry
amir.chaudhry@red-gate.com
twitter: @amirmcFor example, we've already got a handful of startups at Red Gate (go-test.it, broadersheet.com and mixcloud) and there are all sorts of unintented, positive benefits. A couple of them have done some contracting work for use, they've introduced us to friends / relatives who've ended up working for us, and so on. And that's just the short-term stuff. Who knows what will happen long term.
Neil
Early access to interesting products and great teams is likely more than enough value to them in return.
Disclaimer- I know the people who started this and they've got nothing but the best intentions. (They're also a quiet but highly successful company.)
My guess is that they have some office space and cash to spare (it's probably not all that expensive to run such a program). Plus, they're going to get a lot of positive PR as a result.
- mentoring (10 weeks in incubator, then ongoing)
- speakers e.g. Ryan Carson, Joel Spolsky
- office space
- accomodation
- money (expenses & living allowance while in incubator)
- free breakfast and lunch every day
- sessions on product management and sales
Seems the motivation is work with "smart, exciting people" and build relationships with those trying to build "companies where the customers are other businesses rather than consumers".
They describe this as an "accidental incubator"...
"Over the course of the last 10 months we’ve managed
to create an accidental incubator.
After meeting start-ups at various events, we found
ourselves playing host to about a dozen people across
five companies here at our offices. They all seem to
like it, and we like them, which inspired us to put
together Springboard."
They seem like a really stand-up bunch of people (and I really like SQL Compare as well).
If you're early stage, Cambridge makes a lot of sense. Low living expenses, and a TON of angel money is around. A good number of the angels have the resources to do VC-level rounds. (VC's like Amadeus also have offices in Cambridge.)
I think there is massive benefit in having all the key VCs in one area, Cambridge can't compete - but Cambridge does have tons of angels. YMMV
Though this has made me wonder about the value of working with an incubator that does take equity. In the case of Springboard, you don't have to give up any part of your company, but I think that there's substantial value if the incubator does have equity, as they have skin in the game from a financial standpoint.