How do I tell a genuinely good incubator or accelerator from one that just takes equity and gives nothing?
The short answer
Judge the network, not the brochure. A real program gets you warm intros to investors and customers, has alumni who raised or grew after the batch, and has partners who answer your emails a year later. Red flags: they charge you a fee AND take equity, the mentors are unnamed, no alum will get on a call with you, and the pitch is mostly about their fancy space. Talk to three alumni before you sign anything.
Go deeper, your way
3 hand-picked resources, 2 link-checked. Pick how you want to dig in.
📄 Article
✓ Link checkedFreeBeginner
Why we picked it
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.
Why we picked it
This is your actual question sheet: it tells you to interview program leadership about founder EXITS (not the staff's own startups), to demand named investors who wrote checks to portfolio companies, and it puts a hard number on equity (be wary above 6 to 8 percent, and hunt for hidden fees). It also says the quiet part out loud: run a background check on the mentors before you believe the mentor list.
Why we picked it
This is the benchmark to hold any private accelerator against. Under SISFS the government routes money to you THROUGH DPIIT-recognised incubators as a grant of up to 20 lakh (plus up to 50 lakh as debt or convertible debenture), so a vetted incubator can back you without charging a fee. If a program is asking for cash AND equity for less, ask why you shouldn't just apply here to an empanelled incubator instead.
