Congratulations, you made it! Your Web3 startup has just been accepted into the next cohort of a very sleek-looking incubator. And since up to 90% of startups fail, you’ve looked for every advantage possible to get ahead and make your business stick. Now that you are in the strong, safe embrace of an incubator, it should be smooth sailing, right?
Right?
Sadly, it isn’t that simple. Worse, choosing the wrong incubator may hurt your startup in the long run. Sorry to make your life more complicated, but it’s important to know these things up front.
So what is it about incubators that makes them bad? The fact is, a lot of incubators are tremendous opportunities and can offer a startup exactly the type of support it needs. There are two important factors to consider when applying to an incubator: What support do you as a startup actually need, and what type of long-term value can the incubator provide? Let’s dive in and find out how to make sure you can determine both.
Incubators: What and Why
If you are reading this, you probably know exactly what a typical incubator is: a program designed to select promising startups, provide a small boost of funding for a short term, and provide networking and guidance to boost them through the stage where a startup is most vulnerable. The name “incubator” is certainly fitting. It provides the warmth, sustenance, and overall care a baby needs until it can survive on its own.
Here’s a question, though: Why? Why would companies spin off an incubator and dedicate significant resources (time, money, talent) to helping other businesses? Is this a form of giving back to the community? Although many incubators would state on their website that yes, this is why they exist, the reality is a bit more pragmatic. It’s possible that an incubator really does want to share that success and boost the industry, which is certainly admirable. But that isn’t the only, or primary, motivation. Incubators act as a type of investment. The incubator is able to first weed out the many startups that don’t have enough potential (unique value, business model, team talent, etc.) so they can find the startups that have a lot of potential but need a specific boost.
Essentially, an incubator is a great way to attract talent without having to search for it, finding those startups that could be very successful, realizing they need some help, and are willing to ask for it. Once finding those diamonds in the rough, the incubator is able to gain from their success. They can become a very early investor with favorable terms, or in the case of Web3 ecosystem incubators, they can ensure that the startup builds on its chain/platform, strengthening its own value.
These aren’t nefarious goals from incubators, and in fact, they can be completely in line with the good of the startup. The challenge is for the startup to do some soul-searching and due diligence to pick the right incubator.
Finding The Best Incubator
Here’s the secret: there isn’t a best incubator overall. There are very good incubators, and others that don’t have everything needed to support their startups. The challenge is to first determine the good incubators, and then decide what help you need most as a startup.
So what makes a good incubator? A few things. The easiest way to know is by the fruit of their labor. In other words, does an incubator have a solid list of rockstar alumni? If great startups are coming out of an incubator, it means that either they are able to spot potential, they are able to support startups very effectively, or both. Other key indicators include the length of the incubator cohort, the support provided, and the general expectations of startups. Cohorts with too many participants or that run too short (anything less than six months) simply can’t provide what most startups need.
Funding levels aren’t a clear indicator of support because incubators aren’t designed as big funding sources. However, incubators that allocate clear funding based on specific milestones tend to produce stronger graduates. The motivation benefits both the incubator and the startup because the milestones all indicate the right type of growth and maturity. This type of incremental goal setting actually motivates the startup team as well as those people coaching them, as their own success is tied to the startup’s success.
Another key indicator of a good incubator is the long-term growth potential. The startup needs to understand what it hopes to become. Where would it like to be in 1-3 years? Based on that, can the incubator’s ecosystem support that? Is it a chain that has the right type of audiences, technical capability, growth potential, and network of participants that will boost the startup’s vision of itself?
If so, the incubator should be a prime target for the startup, even if the startup is confident in its growth and path so far. After all, an incubator provides a little money, valuable coaching, and priceless connections. Any startup that is so confident that it doesn’t think it needs more access to the right players… well, that startup probably isn’t going to survive long term.
There are a number of very solid incubators in the industry, and if you, as a startup, are struggling to find the right one, start with the ecosystem itself. A rising star on the incubator front is Fortify Labs, and in large part because it is strongly tied to not just one, but two ecosystems.
It is part of the Tezos ecosystem, but as a result, it is also closely tied to the EVM-compatible Etherlink. Using the other guidelines described above, the program offered has purposely small cohorts, has a lengthened duration, strong coaching support with milestone-driven progress, and has a sizable network of connections. Several other incubators offer similar features, so look closely before applying to the first incubator you find.
“Industry’s most personalized startup studio” – @mpost_io
“A game changer” – @coinlaw_io
“A mentorship model built on depth” – @InvezzPortal
“Rejects the conventional accelerator playbook in favor of something more deliberate” – @cryptodailyuk
Our hearts are full with all the… pic.twitter.com/MqteVULEuG
— TZ APAC (@TzApac) October 30, 2025
Final Thoughts
The goal of any startup is to grow and succeed, especially past that most vulnerable phase where money is tight, the team is still gelling, the business model is being refined, and you are spending as much time networking as developing. An incubator can be exactly what a startup needs, but that startup needs to respect itself enough to look beyond the short term and find a program that has the best ecosystem, network, and program to help it achieve its vision.
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Top Tech News Today, November 6, 2025
