Four months after Facebook announced the formation of the $10 million fbFund to provide seed capital for startups building Facebook apps, MySpace is responding with its own incubator to be called Slingshot Labs. According to the NYT, the incubator will be financed by News Corp. but will be separate from Fox Interactive Media’s incubator. As we get more details on Slingshot Labs, we will keep you informed.
An incubator is more of a hands-on approach than a seed-capital fund, but will still allow MySpace to focus on its main business while fostering interesting new ideas. As it gets ready to launch its MySpace Developer Platform, the company will want a way to help create viable businesses around its social network. Although one source tells us that the startups will be focussed on more than just MySpace.
It is also our understanding that Josh Berman, currently MySpace COO, and Colin Digiaro, senior vice president of International Corporate Development, are going to go head up this incubator. Both were part of the founding team. But Tom DeWolfe and Chris Anderson got the big $7 million-a-year contracts. This could be a way to give them their own fiefdom with some nice upside if they make the right bets. Amit Kapur, the current VP of business development and a pretty young guy, is slated to step in as COO of MySpace. We have not confirmed these personnel moves with MySpace yet.
Corporate incubators have had a mixed history of success in the past. Sometimes giving startups too much shelter prevents them from adapting quickly enough to the harsh realities of the market. Of course, corporate venture capital funds have their own problems, especially when investments are based on corporate priorities rather than on pure economic ones. Which do you think is the better route?
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Neither, They Should Leave Startup Creation To the Markets
- A Corporate Incubator
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A Corporate Venture Fund
Total Votes: 529
Started: January 21, 2008
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Is it possible to report how many apps have been funded by FB? I’ve been reading a lot about FB getting more funding, its traffic against the other sites but how about THE APPS??? To me that’s also newsworthy.
Very interested to see the per-deal size the fund is going to “offer” to seed the apps startups.. (in light of the popular Slide’s $500M valuation)…
Slingshot should be interesting. If anyone has the “numbers,” it would be great to find out what percentage the enterpreneur will be offered for his or her sweat. Myspace is clearly in need of some new innovation. From the beginning, the product seemed to have the right features but the wrong architecture. And now with video pages… A broadband solution by RealviewTV(R) could be of use as a licensing deal, “slinger” or competitor to MySpace as seen here.
may the market forces reign!
I wonder if there are even any success stories from corporate incubator venture capital plays?
Sure,
look at idealab! venture Ovature it was the first modle for getting paid for clicks and putting the order on how much they paid. the people who started it up maid millions.
With regard to the poll, I think the best way for corporations to create successful startups is to take the founders of previously successful startups, give them a direction and a lot of resources, and see what happens.
If anyone has the “numbers,” it would be great to find out what percentage the enterpreneur will be offered for his or her sweat.
@ The_RealVIEW
I just checked out your web site - how does your service compare to MySpace (or any other web 2.0 site for that matter). It looks to me like your simply offer video production services and a custom Flash player. Doesn’t look very scalable to me … and certainly not ““slinger” or competitor to MySpace”.
Slingshot should be interesting
I have an urge to vote in polls, but I didnt know the difference.
Now, I feel left out.
Always fascinating to see how big companies ignite innovation. Has anyone written a post or article on the different incentive schemes for the development/business/marketing teams? In essence, I’m asking a similar question as Bali.
All in all, aligning the incentives properly will most likely increase the success rate.
@ Don Jones
Corporate-directed incubators have a spotty record. It’ll be very interesting to see how Slingshot will operate. If the deals done within Slingshot are heavily influenced by News Corp. or Myspace mandates, the odds are against success.
Er is een mooie nieuwe vervanging voor myspace. Kijk maar eens bij: http://www.duchtube.com