Z Cherry Blog

Business Incubators and the Dot Com Bust

June 21st, 2009

Remember the new generation of gold-seekers who made their way to Silicon Valley to the land of Dot Coms? These were the days when business incubators went from largely not for profit organizations to for profit organizations. Perhaps this could be equated to hardware salesmen for the gold seekers of the 1850s. Many for-profit or “private” incubation programs were launched in the late 1990s by investors and other for-profit seeking to hatch businesses quickly and bring in big payoffs. But much like the original gold rush, the Dot Coms hit their peak and many people went bust. It naturally follows that many of the business incubator programs closed. Most of those were for-profit programs and it’s worth mentioning that the not for profit programs retained consistent levels of operation.

Entry Filed under: Business