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The Complete Guide To Southern California Accelerators and Incubators, Part II

In recent months, a dozen accelerators and incubators have emerged in the Southern California area, looking to help take the new generation of technology startups to funding and beyond. However, with the proliferation of incubators, the difficulty in figuring out which programs are--and aren't--worth looking at has become very difficult, if not impossible, for startup entrepreneurs. In an attempt to help people navigate the landscape of accelerators and incubators, we've come up with a (hopefully) comprehensive list of Southern California's various startup accelerators and incubators.


Part II: The In-house Incubators

What is an in-house incubator? We've defined this as an incubator or investor which creates companies--usually, from in-house efforts, but sometimes in partnership with external entrepreneurs--and invests in them and often provides resources, offices, and more to get those companies off the group. In contrast with our earlier list of accelerators, these typically do not have set schedules, defined programs, and investment amounts. Instead, these groups will decide to invest or incubate a company depending on how well they meet their internal strategy; they might invest a few thousand, or a million dollars in a company; and they don't usually have any formal application process.



Idealab
Managed by: Bill Gross
Representative companies: Energy Innovations, UberMedia, eSolar, X1, PerfectMarket, TripTrotting, HitPad, Mingly
Funding: Yes
Amount: Varies
Office Space:Yes
Notes: Traditionally has incubated its own companies (from ideas from Bill Gross), but recently, through its New Ventures group, has been funding new startups which were developed externally.



Science, Inc.
Managed by: Mike Jones
Representative companies: MeUndies, Eventup
Funding: Yes
Amount: Varies
Office Space:Yes
Notes: Digital studio/incubator of Mike Jones, former CEO of MySpace. Both incubates its own ideas, as well as funds external companies.



Brighthouse
Managed by: Scott Painter
Representative companies: Zag, Pricelock, TrueCar, ListSpinner, Zig, RealFinancial, SharesPost
Funding: Yes
Amount: Varies
Office Space: Unknown
Notes: Incubates and finds funding for startups, developed by Painter and associates.



Nantworks
Managed by: Patrick Soon-Shiong
Representative companies: Equipois, Ziosoft, others
Funding: Yes
Amount: Varies
Office Space: Unknown
Notes: Acquires, funds, and develops a range of companies from Soon-Shiong's billions.



Originate Labs
Managed by: Rob Meadows
Representative companies: jQuery, Lottay, CSRware, Zoodles, PanoLab, Refollow, PlayNetwork, The Little Seed, Thrive, Soar Biodynamics
Funding: Yes
Amount: Varies
Office Space: Unknown



Applied Minds
Managed by: Daniel Hillis and Bran Ferren
Representative companies: Metaweb Technologies, Freebase, Applied Proteomics, others.
Funding: Unknown
Amount: Unknown
Office Space: Unknown
Notes: Fantastically secretive brain trust, which regularly incubates ideas, projects, and companies. Backed by Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, among others. Does not publicize the firms it incubates and spawns, and has only a simple, one-page website.


Finally, the third part of our list of incubators and accelerators will continue with Part III: The Incubation Facilities.