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This one names the predatory pattern precisely: a program whose real business is charging you thousands to build your website with its in-house dev team, while it also holds equity, a straight conflict of interest. It documents founders locked into binding contracts paying over 100,000 dollars, and its core instruction backs our answer: interview past participants (it says roughly 80 percent of them), not just the two the program hand-picks for you.
Three Red Flags to Watch Out for in an Incubator
From Anthill Magazine by Tilda Yeow 6 min read
- A program that upsells its own paid in-house services (website, dev) while holding your equity has a built-in conflict of interest
- Advisors with no discernible track record of working with startups mean the mentorship value proposition is hollow
- Talk to a wide slice of past participants yourself, not the curated references the program offers
