TBusiness incubation and technical assistance is a good way to enhance the success of any start-up business. After completing an electronic visit of a business incubator/accelerator and/or other technical assistance providers in San Francisco, you should have some additional ideas about how incubation or other technical assistance can be a support to an ongoing business. This exercise is designed to build upon your electronic research experience to see if it is appropriate to include business incubation/technical assistance as a part of your teams feasibility analysis.

Please provide a minimum 150-word response to each of the following six questions; you must specify which incubator/technical assistance provider you are referencing in your response.  Your final response should not exceed 2-3 single-spaced pages and should be appropriately proof-read, etc.

1. Indicate the name, location, contact information and key operational staff associated with your virtual incubator/technical assistance provider. Identify an aspect of your visited incubator/technical assistance provider that distinguishes it from comparable San Francisco/other country business incubators/technical assistance providers.
2. Using the internet or other resources, define business incubation and explain its relevancy to the business focus of your teams focus. What are at least three different types of business incubators/accelerators in San Francisco? Name at least one way that each kind of business incubator/accelerator supports businesses in your industry.
3. How many business incubators exist in the city/state/US that might be appropriate to support the business that is the subject of your feasibility analysis? What are at least two specific things that an incubator would need to do in order to help your business be successful?
4. From your research, list five reasons why you would or would not use business incubation during the next three years of your businesss operation? Develop a short checklist that a business owner could use to determine if incubation is right for a business.
5. Even if you decide not to use the physical services of an incubator, what are at least three incubator resources from an industry, competition, and market perspective that you would use as a part of your teams feasibility analysis strategy?
6. How does the business incubator/technical assistance provider you visited help start-up businesses get funding? Could the financing services provided by your visited organization be useful to your business? Why or why not?