From Incubation to Venture Building: How Startup Creation Evolved

From Incubation to Venture Building: How Startup Creation Evolved

Startup growth and development is a topic that is close to my heart, and which I have been involved with for a number of years. When designing and running programmes like Infocomm Investment’s TAGPASS, ACE’s BACECAMP, and Accrete’s SEA Anchor, I always take a practical and realistic approach. Having seen the methodology shift firsthand, I can say with certainty that the way we built companies a decade ago is now obsolete.

We have moved through incubation, acceleration, and venture building. Each phase emerged for a reason. Each responded to a limitation in the previous model. Looking back, the evolution is actually quite clear, and it also explains why the next phase of startup creation is now beginning to take shape.

Roughly Pre-2012: Incubation, Technology First

When I look back at the earlier days of incubation, the focus was almost entirely on technology. Most work happened in research labs where the goal was to commercialise a specific invention. As a mentor, our role was to provide space and funding, but we rarely looked at the customer.

This naturally led to many "solutions" looking for a "problem." While developing the technology was the hardest part then, the clear drawback was a total lack of speed to market. We were building in a vacuum.

However, having said that, making emerging technologies available through a tech-match marketplace like what IPI is doing is still relevant and important today, especially for entrepreneurs or organisations who have an opportunity or problem on hand and are looking for a solution.

Around 2013 - 2018: Acceleration and the Shift to Problem Validation

When I was involved with designing and executing TAGPASS and BACECAMP accelerators, we intentionally shifted the mindset. We stopped starting with technology and started with the problem. We ran workshops on design thinking and the business model canvas, pushing founders to build MVPs and test assumptions quickly.

Instead of locking down resources for 2-3 years of incubation, we worked on 3-month cycles. The idea was to embrace a mindset of starting fast, failing fast and pivoting to ensure there is a good product-market fit.

However, I noticed a recurring pattern. Many startups could validate an idea in a 12-week programme, but they hit a wall when it came to execution and scaling. They had traction but lacked the structure to grow. Processes were an afterthought, and governance was reactive. This gap between validation and execution is where I saw most startups fail, or fail to scale. It took nearly 8-10 years for the TAGPASS startups to raise 100M, not a bad outcome, but the lack of speed was evident.

Rough 2017/2018 onwards: The Venture Building Era

Venture building was our answer to that execution gap. We moved beyond the short acceleration window to work more closely with startups on team structure, operational setup, tighter portfolio management, and continuous guidance.

Other variations of the venture building model, such as those offered by NUS GRIP, NTU Lean LaunchPad, SG Innovate and Origgin Ventures, focused more on deep-tech acceleration and venture co-building. In many of these models, technologists and scientists, often taking on CTO roles, were paired with co-founders or business leaders focused on building the company and driving go-to-market efforts.

This was an improvement. Market access programmes like SEA Anchor, Enterprise Singapore's Global Innovation Network, together with various overseas launchpads, helped startups with market insights, in-market mentoring and connections, soft-landing support, and some business development. It worked well, but it also revealed a new limitation: scaling was still heavily dependent on human effort. It was better, but it was not yet at "hyper" speed.

That, to me, is the key point. Venture building solved part of the execution problem, but not the whole thing. It gave startups more structure, more support, and a better shot at growth, but scaling still relied heavily on people, coordination, and time. And that is exactly what sets the stage for the next phase - The Hyper-Acceleration Era!

Written by Edmas Neo