Business incubators exist to help bring business ideas to life. Just as a baby requires maximum care just after it is born, startup ideas too need careful nurturing in the stages before and just after the launch. The best schools now provide specific facilities to encourage entrepreneurship on campus. It includes the required physical infrastructure to help launch a business, as well as the resources and intellectual capital required to gain traction.
While researching B-School incubators, there are a few factors that aspiring Entrepreneurs need to consider. The physical infrastructure is obviously important. But more important are the resources and support offered. Interaction with successful entrepreneurs and industry leaders is a must. Dedicated faculty support and student groups are necessary. Funding possibilities are critical. And exposure to a wide student body, as well as markets completes the list.
We have picked our top five Business Incubators or Innovation Lab for you.
1) Harvard Innovation Lab
The Harvard innovation Lab or ‘Hi’ in short is a dedicated space to nurture team and entrepreneurial activities. What makes this business incubator unique is the fact that it fosters the cross pollination of ideas across a wide mix of Harvard colleges. This includes the B-School, Law school, Arts and Sciences College, Design school, Medical College, Engineering and Applied Sciences College, and finally, the school of public health. Supporting this venture, are faculty, entrepreneurs and the community at large. This business incubator gives students access to a host of sites like Harvard College Venture Partners, HBS Social Enterprise Initiative and HBS eClub. It also offers students recommended startup kits like Harvard StartupTribe and Small Business Trends.
iLab conducts events, seminars and workshops. To sample some, you can click onto the Harvard i-lab YouTube Channel. In the recent past, Michael Skok conducted - "Startup Secrets: How to Gain an Unfair Completive Advantage”. ‘Hi’ follows a seven-step process to help launch startups. They are Form your team, Refine your idea, Get real tactical advice, Take a class, Find a mentor, Ask an expert and at last, Make the i-lab your home base. The hundreds of successfully launched startups vindicate iLabs’ unique cross-disciplinary approach.
2) SKOLKOVO Business Incubator
The Moscow School of Management, SKOLKOVO, has a business incubator that supports its core focus on nurturing entrepreneurs. This intelligently designed incubator guides students in the entrepreneurship process right from idea conception to commercial product launch. While the facility is currently open to students and alumni, it will soon be open to a wider range of clients and entrepreneurs.
SKOLKOVO’s business incubator gives additional support during the first phase of startups where most ideas and plans fall apart. It gives students access to opportunities to quicken the pace of development through access to a wide range of information on entrepreneurship, as well as experiential and group learning experiences. The infrastructure provided is state-of-the-art that helps conduct meetings, hold conferences and demonstrations as well as a host of services ranging from IT to legal services.
SKOLKOVO’s business incubator also gives startups access to an entrepreneurial community that consists of faculty, industry leaders and successful entrepreneurs. The most important aspect, finance, is taken care of through the SKOLKOVO-NANOTECH Venture Fund, which ensures commercial implementation of startup ideas.
3) Stanford Venture Studio
Stanford Venture Studio is a part of the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, which was founded in 1996. It provides infrastructure and support to help bring business ideas to fruition. Here a cross section of MBAs, engineers, lawyers, and medical school students’ work together to foster innovative business plans. The incubation center works as a business hub that brings together faculty, alumni, entrepreneurs, and investors to help students. They also benefit from workshops, and contact with professionals and investors from a wide range of disciplines.
Stanford Venture Studio conducts an annual, ‘Conferences on Entrepreneurship’, which in 2011 covered topics like Trends in Social Commerce, Gaming for the Greater Good, The Democratization of Entrepreneurship, and Building a Distinct Company Culture. Two interactive workshops were also held on "Rapid Prototyping" and "Design + Entrepreneurship: An Introduction to Design Thinking".
The ‘E-Provocateurs Speaker Series’ brings leading entrepreneurs into the lab. Another program, ‘Nuts & Bolts of Entrepreneurship Series’ helps entrepreneurs get a hold on the practical aspects of a startup. The outstanding feature of this program is the wide range of resources a student can access. They include Videos, Business Plans, Legal Resources, Angel Financing, Venture Capital and International Entrepreneurship Assistance.
4) Columbia Business Lab
Columbia Business Lab aims to provide a stage for students and recent alumni of the MBA program to become successful entrepreneurs. This recent venture is led by a board of alumni entrepreneurs overseen by the Lang Entrepreneurship center. Besides the facilities, this business incubator aims to foster a community devoted to entrepreneurship, with the help of monthly networking events and forums, taking advantage of the vast resources of the Lang Center, alumni network and faculty.
21 new ventures will be launched by April / May 2013. They include Urbavour for urban farms, Untamed Sandwiches, an unconventional restaurant and CircleVibe, a mobile app. A testament to Columbia’s entrepreneurial spirit is the fact that recent alumni rank as successful entrepreneurs. Paul Sethi of Advertising Red Books and Aaron Graf & Derek Lee of the LG Fairmont Group are among them. One drawback if we may say so is that this business incubator is only meant for Columbia MBA students.
5) Wharton
Wharton’s Venture Initiation Program is a Business Incubator that supports an already well-established Entrepreneurship program. It is run by Wharton Entrepreneurship, which empowers University of Pennsylvania students to become entrepreneurs. This business incubator provides monthly mentoring sessions, educational programming, networking opportunities, and contemporary infrastructure to build on innovative ideas.
VIP also offers a series of grants to motivate students to form their own business or social ventures. Ten ''VIP Snider Seed Award'' of $2,500 in seed capital is given to help in the initial implementation of startup ideas. The "Emil K. Woods Award" rewards teams who have shown progress in furthering their startup plan. This usually helps entrepreneurs formally launch their ideas, which many alumni have successfully done. The ''Wharton Venture Award (WVA)'' aids students who have declined to take on a summer internship and focus on their business venture. At present nearly 40 companies are being incubated at Wharton’s Venture Initiation Program. They include hi!, Kickir, Studios, Knowtorious, SocialMoola, accessMD and Allazo Health.
About the Author
I am Atul Jose - the Founding Consultant at F1GMAT.
Over the past 15 years, I have helped MBA applicants gain admissions to Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, MIT, Chicago Booth, Kellogg, Columbia, Haas, Yale, NYU Stern, Ross, Duke Fuqua, Darden, Tuck, IMD, London Business School, INSEAD, IE, IESE, HEC Paris, McCombs, Tepper, and schools in the top 30 global MBA ranking.
I offer end-to-end Admissions Consulting and editing services – Career Planning, Application Essay Editing & Review, Recommendation Letter Editing, Interview Prep, assistance in finding funds and Scholarship Essay & Cover letter editing. See my Full Bio.
I am also the Author of the Winning MBA Essay Guide, covering 16+ top MBA programs with 240+ Sample Essays that I have updated every year since 2013 (11+ years. Phew!!)
I am an Admissions consultant who writes and edits Essays every year. And it is not easy to write good essays.
Contact me for any questions about MBA or Master's application. I would be happy to answer them all
Winning MBA Essay Guide - A Complete Guide for M7 and Top 15 MBA Application Essays
F1GMAT's Winning MBA Essay guide will teach you how to transform your essay into a life journey with trials and tribulations that will move the admission team.
+ Over 245 Sample Essays (Read Previews of F1GMAT's Winning MBA Essay Guide Sample Essays here)
+ Top 15 MBA Programs (Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Columbia, Booth, MIT, Kellogg, Yale, Haas, Darden, INSEAD, LBS, NYU Stern, Tuck, Duke Fuqua, Ross)
+ The Art of Storytelling
+ Leadership Narratives
+ Review Tips
+ Persuasion Strategies
+ The Secret to "unleashing" your unique voice
+ How to prepare and present for the Video Essay
+ How to write about your Strengths
+ How to write about your Weaknesses
+ Leadership Narratives
+ Review Tips
+ Persuasion Strategies
+ The Secret to "unleashing" your unique voice
+ How to prepare and present for the Video Essay
+ How to write about your Strengths
+ How to write about your Weaknesses
Want to try the individual school Essay Guides before upgrading to the Winning MBA Essay Guide? Try below.
F1GMAT's Essay Guides
Harvard MBA Essay Guide (20 Sample Essays)
Growth-Oriented Essay: Curiosity can be seen in many ways. Please share an example of how you have demonstrated curiosity and how that has influenced your growth. (up to 250 words)Example #1: Persistence Narrative
Background Information: The applicant – a design and music talent, shares her journey through several setbacks. She attributes curiosity to her growth.
Curiosity: Philosophy
Curiosity (Explained): Curiosity as a philosophy is tough to translate into a narrative unless you are from the creative industry or your contributions had an influence on a solution or an initiative.
MBA Essay Strategy: I wanted to capture the humanity of the applicant and her influence in music instead of just highlighting how she overcame multiple roadblocks to gain attention as a designer.
Theme: Persistence
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Life Starts at NO (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #2: International Community Building
Background Information: The applicant, a Machine Learning (ML) entrepreneur specializing in healthcare diagnostics, shares how his curiosity to learn other ML algorithms’ evolution in diagnosing Alzheimer’s, cancer, and heart disease transformed his platform into a global community.
MBA Essay Strategy: I wanted to show the applicant’s contributions in diagnostic from 2020 to 2024 by citing two events. Such examples build credibility instead of engagements that were recent. The evolution of the platform from an AI development community to a community for discussing the application of AI in diagnostics is captured through a ‘curiosity’ angle.
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Growth through Collaboration (AI in Healthcare) (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #3: Culture
Background Information: The applicant, an Entrepreneur from India narrates his first entrepreneurial experience – facilitating exchange of stamps in the late 1990s.
Theme: Culture
MBA Essay Strategy: Instead of addressing the biases in the investor community that could turn preachy, I wanted to focus on the applicant and his entrepreneurial journey by citing two entrepreneurial experiences – a platform(club) for stamp collection and his Grocery delivery App.
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – The American Dream (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #4: Addiction
Background Information: The applicant – a beneficiary of the foster home system, captures the sacrifice his adopted grandparents made to save him from a path of addiction. Paying it back through early intervention among teenagers and community engagement is the curiosity narrative.
Theme: Addiction
MBA Essay Strategy: My strategy is to capture a gratitude narrative in the first one-third of the essay to demonstrate motivation for starting the venture and dedicate the latter part of the essay to the unique solution
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Drug Addiction and Gaming (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #5: Scarcity
Background Information: The applicant, an education major, recognizes that 70% of all students in Kenya don’t have a computer. The curiosity that drives him to pivot from one solution to another is the growth narrative.
Theme: Innovation
MBA Essay Strategy: Often, innovation is captured with a ‘hero’ narrative where the applicant is the sole originator of an idea. I wanted to break that cliché and include a person from whom the applicant learned to use a concept called ‘scaffolding.’
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Scarcity (Growth-Oriented HBS Essay Example)Example #6: FinTech
Background Information: The applicant captures a vulnerable moment of a beneficiary to compare his journey of side hustle before a technology giant noticed his talent. Although cryptocurrency is not a flavor for the year, capture niches where innovation is still happening.
Theme: Education, Child Welfare
MBA Essay Strategy: Empathizing with a techno solution is tough without a strong backstory around the beneficiary. For the essay, I wanted to clearly establish the beneficiary – Rami, before the applicant narrates the similarities to his journey and finally shares the solution that emerged from his curiosity.
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – FinTech as a Tool for Good (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #7: Learning from the best
Background Information: The applicant – a Remote Engineer in the Oil and Gas industry, reflects on a value that has helped her learn from the best regardless of her geographical limitations.
Theme: Learning
MBA Essay Strategy: The effectiveness of the case-study method depends on the assumption that peers in a Harvard MBA class will help elevate your learning experience. For the essay, I have highlighted the applicant’s recognition of this value proposition with three examples.
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Learning from the Best (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #8: Military & Search for IMPACT
Background Information: The most common narrative for US military applicants is to quote 9/11 and the reaction your immediate family had while watching the events unfold. The horrifying moment is captured as a motivation to join the Military. On digging deeper, most applicants would share that their motivations were diverse.
Theme: Career Choice
MBA Essay Strategy: I wanted to quickly highlight that the applicant had the choice of entering any industry. One achievement to demonstrate his curiosity that I shared in the first half is the invention of a game. Since the game is mentioned in the resume and verifiable through search, I didn’t quote the name. By clearly highlighting the person’s curiosity and career options, the family legacy is used as a factor in joining the military.
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Career Choice after a Military Career (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)
Leadership-Focused Essay: What experiences have shaped who you are, how you invest in others, and what kind of leader you want to become? (up to 250 words)Example #9: Small Business Values
Background Information: The applicant - a second-generation Asian American, is familiar with the values of fiscal conservatism, building relationships, and understanding the daily struggles of the community through his family’s department store.
Theme: Customer-Centric
MBA Essay Strategy: The applicant’s role in developing an App for the store is highlighted in the essay at a crucial part of the narrative so that the essay is not all about his father. I have also humanized the journey – by sharing how upset the father was when the revenues fell by 40%. The essay is about the transformation in the applicant’s value from a person chasing productivity and optimization technique to someone who is truly thinking about the customers.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Small Business Values (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #10: Breaking Away from Family Business
Background Information: A unique challenge that applicants whose parents are public figures or CXOs of businesses or entrepreneurs are the pressure to live up to the parent’s standards or milestones. For the leadership narrative, the burden of legacy is established before the narrative addresses his leadership principles.
Theme: Authenticity
MBA Essay Strategy: For the essay, I want to capture an entrepreneur’s journey to rise above his entrepreneur father’s image. But I didn’t want to make the entire essay about this complex dynamics. The narrative is around the applicant’s focus on customers and surrounding with teams who keeps him grounded.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Breaking Away from Family Business(Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #11: Creativity and Communication
Background Information: When the overall percentage of users with internet access is 62% in South Africa and the inequality accentuated by the rural and urban divide, the applicant endured the lack of digital infrastructure, and spending close to 22% of the family income on gaining relevant information on schools, global exams, and financial assistance.
Theme: Creativity, Communication
MBA Essay Strategy: The strategy is to share why the applicant values no distraction in a child’s home for optimum education experience. Then I highlight the many roadblocks the applicant’s non-profit faced in receiving fee waiver for their cooperative run ISP.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Non-Profit (Telecom) (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #12: Mental Health
Background Information: The applicant like most didn’t pay much attention to the mental health epidemic until tragedy hit home.
Theme: Communication, Innovation
MBA Essay Strategy: A question we frequently get from applicants is whether they should cite tragedy in the family as a motivation for a venture or a non-profit initiative. As long as you don’t linger too much on the tragedy and offer a balanced narrative, there are no restrictions on leveraging unique stories from your life.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Mental Health (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #13: Trauma, Healing & Finding Authentic Self
Background Information: The applicant narrates the absurdity of war in the narrative about the duties in Kabul, and the trauma. Instead of wallowing in on the horror, the applicant takes what makes military applicants strong and guides unprivileged children build life and leadership skills.
Theme: Resilience
MBA Essay Strategy: Capturing PTSD in an essay, the healing process, and the cues that helped the applicant are too sacred to be shared in a Harvard MBA application essay. However, with the right motivation and narrative arcs, you can capture the essence of your journey without sharing the darkest secrets. That is what I did by merging two stories – the horrors of the war with a non-profit engagement.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Military & PTSD (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #14: Addiction, Setback and Leadership Mantra
Background Information: In this narrative, the applicant captures Peru’s Silver mining boom of 2006. The growth experienced in her father’s business shifted the family’s economic status to a new stratosphere. Through the changing economic and family dynamics, the applicant finds her voice in a unique way, initially to record her unheard voice but later as one of the youngest subject matter experts in mining and commodities.
Theme: Failure
MBA Essay Strategy: For the essay, the strategy is to show how life’s unpredictability is a blessing. By narrating two setback events, the essay demonstrates the applicant’s resilience and her acknowledgment of people who made a comeback possible.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Addiction, Setback and Leadership Mantra (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #15: War, Immigration and Starting Over Again
Background Information: Despite a raging war in Syria, the family of the applicant was unblemished by the chaos. The strategic government assets near the applicant’s house would have made the region an easy target, but it was not. The calmness of her journey is shattered in one event. From the privileges of a cocooned life, the applicant is forced to think about survival, her sister’s future, and her future in the US. The second half of the narrative captures the change that was forced on her.
Theme: Gratitude, Resilience
MBA Essay Strategy: I consciously chose not to start the essay with a dialogue or trauma. Two lines are allocated to set up the narrative before the trauma event.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – War, Immigration and Starting Over Again (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)Harvard MBA Business-Minded Essay: Please reflect on how your experiences have influenced your career choices and aspirations and the impact you will have on the businesses, organizations, and communities you plan to serve. (up to 300 words)
Example #16: Creative or Finance
Background Information: The applicant starts the narrative with the origin of her talents. The unbridled enthusiasm receives a reality check when in high school, the applicant’s father has a conversation with her about academics. While the applicant picked up her quant skills, she was reaching over 50,000 loyal fans, and her videos captured 1 million views.
Theme: Passion, Talent
MBA Essay Strategy: Capturing vulnerability is the toughest part for Harvard MBA applicants. For this essay example, I have captured the applicant’s uncertainty about career choice throughout the essay. Here the goal is to show vulnerability in the career choice essay while for leadership and growth essay, I could capture one example each from creative and PE industry respectively to balance the narrative. So don’t follow this example without a strategy.
Read: Harvard MBA Business-Minded Essay – Creative or Finance (Business-Minded HBS MBA Essay Example)- Stanford MBA Essay Guide (24 Sample Essays)
- Columbia MBA Essay Guide (21 Sample Essays)
- Wharton MBA Essay Guide (15 Sample Essays)
- INSEAD MBA Essay Guide (19 Sample Essays)
- Darden MBA Essay Guide (21 Sample Essays)
- Yale SOM MBA Essay Guide (15 Sample Essays)
- Tuck MBA Essay Guide (15 Sample Essays)
- Haas MBA Essay Guide (18 Sample Essays)
- NYU Stern MBA Essay Guide (15 Sample Essays + 6 Examples - Visual Essay)
- LBS MBA Essay Guide (6 Sample Essays)
- MIT Sloan MBA Essay Guide (6 Sample Cover Letters + 3 Sample Video Statement Scripts + 3 Sample Optional Essays)
- Kellogg MBA Essay Guide (11 Sample Essays)
- Chicago Booth MBA Essay Guide (12 Sample Essays)
- Ross MBA Essay Guide (31 Sample Essays)
- Duke Fuqua MBA Essay Guide (10 Sample Essays + Two 25 Random Things Samples)
- Cambridge MBA Essay Guide (12 Sample Essays)
Want to read the Essay Examples before purchasing the Essay Guides?
Not sure if an MBA Program is right for you? See our Premium Research.
F1GMAT Premium
Salary Trends (3 Years):
Do you want to work with the expert consultant who has guided applicants to M7 and T20 MBA admissions? Sign up now!
F1GMAT's Services
- MBA Application Review (Essay Editing + Resume Editing + Recommendation Letters + All Application Questions)
- Essay Editing (Essays and All Application Questions)
- One Essay Editing (One Essay/One Cover Letter)
- Career Planning and Detailed Profile Evaluation (Find career goals and courses/schools to match your aspirations)
- One School Recommendation Letter Editing Service
- One Supervisor Recommendation Letter Editing Service