Incubators and accelerators emerged from the tech industry when people realized that there were brilliant and passionate aspiring entrepreneurs with great ideas being held back by their lack of business acumen for structuring and building scalable companies, inability to communicate their vision, and need to be plugged into a powerful network. In an emerging industry, where speed to market is highly rewarded, traditional MBA programs are not a timely option.
The terms "incubator" and "accelerator" are often used interchangeably, which can be confusing. We see an incubator as being a place where startup founders co-work around other startups. There are often a network of mentors engaging the companies, but there is little structure. The term accelerator seems appropriate to apply to programs that take an existing company and give them the resources necessary to gain traction and marketshare in an accelerated manner.
See the infographic below from Nutcache for more information on 'Incubators vs. Accelerators'.
To learn about the benefits of the Gateway program, please view this post:
Source: Nutcache (image modified to include the top cannabis incubator and accelerator)
