The DeanBeat: Game Dojos accelerator will help foster even more game startups

We’ve seen an explosion in game startups in the past few years. Zynga and Nexon have gone public, an indication that we could be nearing the end of a cycle. Their IPOs raise the question: When will there be enough game companies?

Game Dojos, a brand new San Francisco-based accelerator for game startups, thinks we’re not there yet. The game market will be saturated, not when there are lots of game startups, but when many … Continue Reading

Startup incubator just for teens is picking its next class

Hey kids: If you’ve got a great idea for a startup, we know a guy who’d love to help you out over the summer.

The Teens In Tech incubator started last year as a way for ambitious, bright teenagers to accelerate their business and app ideas.

This year, the Teens In Tech gang is welcoming a second class and is taking applications now.

Last summer, six teams went through the incubation process. Nine out of … Continue Reading

Floating technology incubator gets cash infusion from Facebook funder Peter Thiel

Blueseed, a new incubator to be based on a ship 12 miles off the California coast, will see its first round of funding led by big-name investor Peter Thiel.

The floating “seastead” will host 1,000 entrepreneurs just a few miles from San Francisco. Its main draw is its location in international waters — a perfect, if temporary, solution for non-U.S. entrepreneurs looking for a way to get closer to Silicon Valley.

The team is attempting … Continue Reading

Greenstart will make you wish you had a cleantech startup (photo gallery)

Greenstart, a new clean technology startup incubator based in San Francisco, officially opened its doors today when San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee cut the ribbon for the office space.

Greenstart’s new office space has a slick, green feel to it — compared to the semi-industrial feel that other startup incubator offices like AngelPad have. The whole space came together in the span of about eight weeks with “a startup’s budget,” Greenstart founding parter Mitch Lowe … Continue Reading

Exclusive: Tech mastermind Kai-Fu Lee on the “parallel universe” of startups in China

What are the distinguishing characteristics of Chinese tech company founders?

“They are just as passionate and independent as the Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, and they work even harder!”

So said the the legendary computer scientist Kai-Fu Lee, Apple employee turned Microsoft engineer turned Google.cn chief, in an interview with VentureBeat this evening.

Two years ago, Lee left Google to start his own startup incubator, Innovation Works.

Tonight, we learned Lee had raised a $180 million fund … Continue Reading

Former Google China chief raises $180M for startup incubator

Kai-Fu Lee, the former head of Google China, has just finished a $180 million fund-raise for Innovation Works, a startup incubator for he founded two years ago.

Innovation Works is an accelerator for early-stage web and tech companies in China. The firm provides advisement, funding and support services to would-be entrepreneurs trying to get their own startups off the ground.

“Our unique ‘incubation-plus-investment’ model has not only produced a pipeline of high-quality projects but also … Continue Reading

Zendesk opens new Denmark office, teams up with startup incubators

Customer help desk management provider Zendesk today announced that it is opening a new office in Denmark and is teaming up with nearly a dozen startup incubators around the world to give its customer support software.

The company is working with the likes of Y Combinator and Seedcamp to give those attending startups its software for free for a year. Zendesk operates a Web-based help desk service that lets companies track customer complaints across most … Continue Reading

The second batch of companies from 500 Startups’ Demo Day

Hybrid incubator and seed fund 500 Startups hosted its second demo day in Mountain View today, where more than 30 companies in the program presented in front of investors and press.

The program is run by Dave McClure, a super-angel who has invested in the likes of Mint.com and Twilio. The firm makes small investments in companies and provides them with office space. It also gives the startups in the program access to a network … Continue Reading

Diesel founder invests in startup incubator H-farm

Renzo Rosso, the founder of clothing company Diesel, has just taken a 20 percent stake in the startup incubator H-farm.

We’ve seen plenty of high-tech investors taking stakes in online fashion businesses, such as Atomico Ventures, the investment fund of  Skype co-founder Niklas Zennström, investing in Fashiolista, an online fashion community. But a fashion magnate investing in startups is much more unusual.

The amount of the investment was not disclosed.

H-Farm was founded in 2005 … Continue Reading

Kevin Rose's newest mobile app development gig: Milk

It looks like Digg founder Kevin Rose has found his rebound start-up after breaking up with Digg just about two weeks ago — a web application development lab called Milk.

Milk doesn’t seem like a traditional incubator (they usually offer guidance, mentorship and a little bit of seed funding to get started). Instead it will be a place where developers can bring in an interesting idea and quickly turn it into some kind of operational … Continue Reading

Dublin: Europe's next startup petri dish?

Startup Bootcamp, a European startup accelerator network and Techstars affiliate, just added Dublin to its existing locations of Copenhagen and Madrid. London and Berlin will follow in 2012.

Ireland’s tech scene continues to expand in spite of the woeful state of the rest of the economy with a plethora of accelerator programs, seed funds and events like Founders and the IBM smartcamp global finals happening there in the last year or two.

Startup Bootcamp’s Dublin … Continue Reading

Canada's Real Ventures announces lean startup program for games

Canadian game startups can look forward to receiving private support from a Montreal incubator program announced at a video game finance conference in Toronto.

The FounderFuel accelerator program by Montreal venture capital group Real Ventures will launch this summer, said Mark McLeod, a partner at FounderFuel. He addressed more than 200 game developers, executives and financiers attending the two-day GameON Finance conference.

The effort shows that the Canadians are bent on embracing games as a … Continue Reading

Where the Valley's hottest incubator nests its companies

A new report shows that most companies developed at Y Combinator, the much-watched Silicon Valley incubator known for both the geeky prowess of the startups it grooms and the Hollywood glitz of the investors it draws to its Demo Day events, launched on the cheap. The Y Combinator graduates, including much-discussed stars like travel site Hipmunk and online-storage service Dropbox showed a strong preference for cost-saving cloud-computing services for storage and processing and Web-based software … Continue Reading

20,000 gum balls later, Gumball Capital initiates rising entrepreneurs at 50 schools

You have a week, $27, and 27 gum balls to create a business venture. That’s the mission of Gumball Capital’s student entrepreneur challenge, and so far it has been wildly successful, with some rising entrepreneurs generating as much as ten times a return on the initial investment.

Gumball Capital is a “startup” accelerator of sorts, encouraging students across the U.S. in high school and college to try their hand at building some kind of business … Continue Reading

Accelerator incubator raises $23M for new biotech investments

You have a week, $27, and 27 gum balls to create a business venture. That’s the mission of Gumball Capital’s student entrepreneur challenge, and so far it has been wildly successful, with some rising entrepreneurs generating as much as ten times a return on the initial investment.

Gumball Capital is a “startup” accelerator of sorts, encouraging students across the U.S. in high school and college to try their hand at building some kind of business … Continue Reading