Choosing between an accelerator and an incubator comes down to whether the bottleneck is money or calendar time

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Incubator equity stakes of 3 to 7 percent often buy little more than a desk and a mailing address The graduation date in an incubator contract is the clause founders read last and should read first Cohort programs force a demo day deadline on a product that needed six more months of customer calls How incubators screen applicants when every applicant sends the same pitch deck template A three-month accelerator compresses the wrong work for a company still hunting for a problem Rolling-admission incubators let a team start in March while cohort accelerators make it wait until September Accelerator-style programs inside universities rarely survive the graduation of their first cohort Questions to ask an incubator before signing: who the mentors actually are and how many hours they give What a rejected accelerator applicant should ask the program before reapplying next cycle Letting startups bid on city contracts does more for a local scene than any incubator