

Springboard. A new incubator (in Cambridge, UK), takes no equity. - babul
http://springboard.red-gate.com/

======
babul
They provide (amongst other things)...

    
    
      - 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
    

...and take no equity (atleast initially?), tie you down at the end, or even
require you have a company.

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."
    

Also, building on a MS stack will probably increase your chances of acceptance
if you are applying (as Red Gate, the host company, builds tools for MS
software), but I know first hand some of the companies already involved build
using other tools e.g. RoR/Scala/Erlang.

~~~
icey
I've recently dealt with Red Gate's support team for a minor issue I was
having (I couldn't find my serial number), and I honestly can't remember the
last time I've had such a good experience with any support anywhere. They even
followed up with an email a few days later.

They seem like a really stand-up bunch of people (and I really like SQL
Compare as well).

~~~
profquail
I'll second that. I purchased one of Red Gate's flagship products (ANTS
Profiler) about a year ago to use on one of my last projects for school (a
.NET-based numerical library), and I remember thinking that they were the
first company that had ever made me think, "Their customer service is _so_
good, I'll definitely buy something from them again."

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brandon272
This seems like a good idea and a great deal if you're have an idea for a
startup.

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.

~~~
amirmc
That all depends on how much skin. Most incubators I've heard of take small
stakes in a lot of companies. The start-up just becomes one more fish and it
rapidly becomes a numbers game for the incubator. I might be wrong though.

------
anulman
Is this sponsored by the local government? Are they hoping for it to be
sustainable?

I mean, this can (and likely will) be really beneficial for those who get
in... but what/where's the endgame?

~~~
Alex3917
I doubt there's any endgame. For the price of some unused office space they
get smart people to bounce ideas off, free introductions to anyone the
founders know who can help their business, and a bunch of publicity. It's the
same reason why already established people often like to cowork.

~~~
anulman
Hmm... I understand the coworking benefits, and the opportunity to either sell
Red Gate products or invest in a later stage that babul mentioned, but this is
still a huge investment.

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.

~~~
adamt
I think this is a great move, and I know and can happily vouch for the people
behind it. Neil has been a big fan of Y-Combinator and that is clearly part of
the inspiration.

As for their motives, I see part of it is about 'real-world karma', and part
of it is that it's really not a huge cost to them with a range of benefits.

Providing (presumably spare) office space and canteen meals (albeit in their
nice company restaurant) to a small team for 10 weeks isn't going to be a huge
cost to a company that employs 160 people.

If the startups they have fail, but they have smart people, then it's
potentially cheap recruitment for them (it costs about US$10k on average to
recruit an average software developer in Cambridge via agencies). If the
companies succeed, at least to the point of getting a promising product, then
presumably it provides a range of commercial opportunities.

I think this is a great move, and something I hope other companies might
follow. Red Gate are in the fortunate position of being profitable and not
having external shareholders to worry about, which has perhaps made this
easier for them to do. But if they can demonstrate the model can work, then it
will make it easier for others to copy.

~~~
amirmc
This could only happen since Neil and Simon are co-founder/CEOs. I can't
imagine any external shareholders would have approved it (if they had them).

------
volodia
How do they make money?

~~~
alexsolo
Probably by making and selling add-on tools for Microsoft products:
<http://www.red-gate.com/>

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.

~~~
amirmc
Not really about PR. We want to find start-ups and teams we can build long-
term relationships with.

------
chrischen
Too bad i don't have a passport at the moment..

~~~
profquail
If you are in the US, you can get a passport in a hurry at one of the national
passport offices if you need to leave the country within 14 days; if you can't
make it to the office in person, you can ask for expedited service to speed up
the processing for your passport application though (at an additional cost).

------
DrJokepu
It would be really awesome if they (or someone else) did something similar in
London. Cambridge is not very far from here (60 miles or so) but still, there
are a lot of developers and would-be entrepreneurs in London and I believe the
program could be even more successful here.

~~~
jedc
Cambridge is only 45 minutes from London by train, and London does already
have Seedcamp.

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.)

~~~
pclark
I'm not sure any VC in Cambridge is suitable for startups gearing towards
Seedcamp. I'm not sure if Springboard is geared towards these style companies,
or more ramen profitable & scale without external help style companies. I
suspect the latter.

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

~~~
jedc
I was mainly trying to point out the strength (and resources) of the angels in
Cambridge.

I agree that Cambridge VCs tend not to be interested in the less hard-tech
investments that are usually found in Seedcamp and similar programs.

------
jhancock
glad to see more options coming about. As to the no equity part, thats cool
that they can do that. I think the YC model, if it fits your startup, has an
equity basis that I would call a "token". I'm sure there are angels throughout
the world that could offer investment for no or low equity as YC and others
are doing it.

