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 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

Clustermapping Opened Source Link 292
  • Company name with link to a separate page within cluster mapping
  • on that page there is a link to the incubator's website
 Provides a long list of entrepreneurship organizations 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. 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 Directions How many? Region Data Benefits Limitations
Alabama Business Incubation Network Opened source link and counted incubators listed on the home page 12 Alabama Incubator Name, Brief Description, and a link to the home page Reliable links that are filtered to include only incubators only contains information on incubators in Alabama that are associated with NBIA
Florida Business Incubation Association Opened source link and then opened links for each of the four regions in Florida 66 Florida source link contains 4 links to the regions in Florida, each region contains incubator name, address, and a link to the home page Provides reliable links. Filtered to include only information on incubators May be challenging for a web crawler to navigate because it is separated by region. Only provides information about Florida incubators.
Louisiana Business Incubation Association Opened source link. Copied the data on incubators into a text editor and search for how many times the word "E-Mail" appeared 28 Louisiana
  • incubator name
  • contact name
  • address and phone number
  • link to website
 data is filtered to include only incubators, links are reliable only incubators in state of Louisiana, limited data set
Maryland Business Incubation Association Opened source link and counted number of incubators listed on the page 35 Maryland Main site contains incubator name, short description, and link to another page within main site with contains a link to the incubator home page Reliable links, filtered to include only incubators It would be challenging for a web crawler to navigate, as the main page contains links internal to the site which then link to the home pages of incubators. Limited dataset with only incubators in Maryland.
Massachusetts Association of Business Incubators Open source link and count number of incubators listed on the page 20 Massachusetts incubator name, short description, and link to incubator home page reliable links, only data on incubators limited dataset



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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