Accelerating towards the Bubble burst moment

Tuesday, December 11. 2012

Accelerating towards the Bubble burst moment

Evidence that the Incubator/Accelerator bubble is close to bursting - Forbes:

Nike is the latest to jump into tech incubation with its Nike+ Accelerator, for helping the latest health-related startups. The program, organized by TechStars, focuses on startups in areas such as training, coaching, gaming, data visualization and the quantified self.

Accelerators are the new business schools, at least in the tech startup world. These programs, which typically involve a small amount of funding and mentorship and connections in exchange for a small amount of equity, have exploded in popularity. The ten week program, which will accept ten companies, will begin in March 2013 in Portland, Ore.

When companies that know next to nothing of technology jump into it, while people who know a lot are scaling back (eg Y Combinator) or pulling their money out at the same time, you know you are getting close to the "pop" moment.

"Just do it" is one saying, but "look before you leap" is another.....

Update - my friend James Cooper totally disagrees with me in the comments.

Posted by Alan Patrick in Bubblewatch at 09:37 | Comments (2) | Trackbacks (0)

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Totally disagree Alan. Technology hasn't even begun to touch the sort of areas Nike+ Accelerator is looking at. Do we really thing that health and fitness is an area where there is over-investment/ a bubble?

Also think that it's not true that Nike have nothing to add to this area / are clueless. They created one of the most popular consumer mobile apps (Runkeeper) and are building some amazing new platforms (Fuel) etc

In any case, the amount of money put into this program is tiny - hardly webvan, Royal Bank of Scotland style bubble investment?

IMO this is a really smart move by Nike as they make a play to become a platforms/ service business as well as a sportswear company.

Hope you're well

#1 James Cooper on 2012-12-11 10:03 (Reply)

Next Xmas, beer on whichever one of us is right

I agree with you re technology for health, but I wonder if it will be done via accelerators.

Mind you, I don't think they will pop in 12 months, I think its a 12 - 24 month thing, so probably a foolhardy bet on my side

#2 alanp on 2012-12-11 17:13 (Reply)

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