Incubators, accelerators, and venture studios...what's the difference?

With examples in the quantum tech ecosystem

Earlier this month, it was Waterloo Tech Week, and I got to attend some really cool events. At one of them, I was chatting with someone from a venture studio, who brought up that one of the challenges with recruitment was that most people weren’t sure about the difference between incubators, accelerators, and venture studios. I thought it would be a good topic to touch on as we try to wrap our heads around the quantum tech ecosystem.

As with everything, there is nuance and blurry edges in practice, but I think they key differences are that:

• Incubators are primarily spaces (and usually for very early stage startups)

• Accelerators are primarily structured programs (and usually for companies that are already formed)

• Venture Studios are companies that build startups from scratch

Let’s dig in a little more.