Incubator Seed Data

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Goal

We will evaluate data sources based on the number of incubators they have data on and the type of information they supply on these incubators. We will also record whether or not these data sources collect information on any other types of entrepreneurship organizations. Ideally these data sources would provide some or all of the variables that were identified as most important for identifying incubators (Formulate_baseline_attributes). However, it is unlikely that one data source will contain all of the baseline attributes identified, therefore if the data source can provide links to a large quantity of incubators or in-depth descriptions, they could still be viable.


Evaluation of Sources from Specific Google Searches

  • Searches included:
  • "incubator database"
  • "us business incubators database"
Source Directions Data on how many? Data Benefits Limitations
Whartoneclub Incubators
  • Opened source link.
  • Copied results from "U.S. Based Incubators" into excel spreadsheet.
 21
  • Name, City, State
  • Url to home page of incubator
 Links to the home page of incubator May not be able to get specific information from home page. Limited list of incubators. Some organizations listed may not fall under our definition of an incubator (eg. Y Combinator)
National Business Incubation Association
  • Opened source link
  • Entered "United States" for country and clicked "Find Companies"
 415
  • Company Name and address
  • Link to another page within inbia on that page there is a link to the incubator's homepage
 The database contains information on a lot of economic development institutions and would provide a mass quantity of data Challenging for web crawler as link connects to another page within inbia and then link on that page connects to company's homepage. Not all of institutions listed are incubators.

Out of the first ten links there were: 4 incubators, 2 educational programs, 1 broken link, 3 other economic development programs


Source: https://www.clustermapping.us/organization-type/innovation-and-entrepreneurship-support-organizations

  1. Opened source link
  2. Received 292 results for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Support Organizations in the US
  3. Data
  1. Brief Description
  2. Company name with link to a separate page within cluster mapping
  1. Link to Company Website
  2. Regions

Review

  • Provides a long list of entrepreneurship organizations
  • Limitation: Often data is missing off of the separate page for the company, including the URL to the company's website. The description is often not detailed enough to determine the category for the economic organization without going to the company's website.
  • Limitation: Different types of entrepreneurship organizations are mixed together
  • Using the first 10 links, three were accelerators, six were missing links (two were self-proclaimed incubators in description), and one was another type of support organization.


Evaluation of Sources from INIBIA List of US Accelerator Associations

The National Business Incubation Association maintains a list of U.S. Incubation Associations. We went through this list and evaluated each association as a potential data source. These sites generally contain a list of incubators that are working in collaboration with the NBIA and are within that specific state. The sites could be useful in cross-referencing data pulled from the NBIA main database as some of the incubators listed on the state specific websites are not in the main NBIA database.

Source: Alabama Business Incubation Network

  1. Opened source link
  2. Counted incubators listed on the home page and found information for 12 incubators
  3. Data
  • Incubator Name, Brief Description, and a link to the home page

Review

  • Provides reliable links to incubators within Alabama
  • Benefit: data is filtered to include only incubators
  • Limitation: only incubators within Alabama

Source: http://www.fbiaonline.org/Incubators/incubators.htm Florida Business Incubation Association (FBIA)

  1. Opened source link
  2. Opened links for each of the four regions in Florida
  3. Counted incubators listed in each of the four regions to get information on 66 incubators
  4. Data
  • main site contains links to four regions in Florida, each region contains the following data:
  • incubator name, address, phone number and link to home page

Review

  • Provides reliable links to incubators within Florida
  • Benefit: data is filtered to include only incubators
  • Limitation: may be challenging for a web crawler to navigate, as main page has links to regions which has links to home pages of incubators
  • Limitation: only incubators within Florida

Source: https://www.louisianaincubation.org/current-members Louisiana Business Incubation Association

  1. Opened source link
  2. Copied the data on incubators into a text editor and searched for how many times the word "E-Mail" appeared
  3. Site contained data on 28 incubators in the state of Louisiana
  4. Data
  • Main site contains
  • incubator name
  • contact name
  • address and phone number
  • link to website

Review

  • Provides reliable links to incubators within Louisiana
  • Benefit: data is filtered to include only incubators
  • Limitation: may be challenging for a web crawler to navigate, as main page does not contain information on incubator but rather has links to home pages of incubators
  • Limitation: only incubators within Louisiana

Source: http://incubatemaryland.org/incubators/ Maryland Business Incubation Association

  1. Opened source link
  2. Counted number of incubators listed on the page and found information on 35 incubators
  3. Data
  • Main site contains incubator name, short description and link to another page within main site read more which contains:
  • link to incubate home page

Review

  • Provides reliable links to incubators within Maryland
  • Benefit: data is filtered to include only incubators
  • Limitation: may be challenging for a web crawler to navigate, as main page contains links internal to the site which then link to the home pages of incubators
  • Limitation: only incubators within Maryland

Source: https://www.massincubators.org/ Massachusetts Association of Business Incubators

  1. Opened source link
  2. Counted number of incubators listed on the page and found information on 20 incubators
  3. Data
  • Main site contains incubator name, short description and link to the incubator's home page

Review

  • Provides reliable links to incubators within Massachusetts
  • Benefit: data is filtered to include only incubators
  • Limitation: only incubators within Massachusetts



Accelerator Data Sources that are Potentially Viable

Source: http://www.acceleratorinfo.com/see-all.html

  1. Opened source link
  2. Copied links from first column (“All Startup Support Programs”) into excel and returned 215 results
  3. Copied links from second column (“All University Programs”) into excel and returned 249 results)
  4. Each link on parent list leads to individual home page url of organization

Review

  • Provides only links, does not separate between incubator and accelerator, some of the university supported programs may not be considered either an incubator or an accelerator

Source: https://bostonstartupsguide.com/guide/every-boston-startup-accelerator-incubator/

  1. Scrolled down to the section labeled "Startup incubators in Boston"
  2. Counted the number of incubators in Boston (10)
  3. Data
  1. Company Name and URL
  2. Capital Provide
  3. Equity taken
  4. Application Process

Review

  • The data is relatively unformatted and would be a challenge to use
  • It is limited in scope to the Boston Area and only provides information on 10 incubators



Accelerator Data Sources that are not viable

  • Reason: data is cluttered/messy, does not provide links to incubator websites and doesn't include enough information for evaluation without incubator url
  • Learn More: Previous Research
  • Reason: this website is no longer active, the link will not work
  • Learn More: Previous Research
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