“Incubator Houses” Bring Home to the Office
It sounds like a sitcom or reality TV pitch: eight 30-something bachelors, one $8-million house… and a dozen startups. But in fact, these “incubator homes” are becoming increasing popular in Silicon Valley, providing a roof, and inspiration, to aspiring startup founders and entrepreneurs. As BusinessWeek reports:
In the basement, Justin Santa Barbara, a British coder, built a small supercomputer to help create what he calls “the world’s fastest database.” In the library, Antony Evans has developed an iPhone app that tries to determine if a user needs to see a doctor by asking a series of questions. Harvard will begin testing it in a couple of months. Turri, the beef jerky maker, has a meat smoker in the backyard and a flavoring station in the living room. “I’ve been doing startups for quite a while, and it can be quite a lonely experience,” says Evans, 32, who arrived at the house after getting a math degree from Cambridge. “Here there are five guys working in the house at any one time, and you can grab a bite. It helps you deal psychologically with the ups and downs.”
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