Question
Is the "idea vs execution" paradigm being challenged by all these incubators?
Answer
Marc Andreessen explains it best in this article+video:
http://trailmeme.com/walk/The_Ul...
To paraphrase, he says that what is important is evidence of ability to think things through. Investors ask for plans not because they want to test the believability of the proposed execution, but because they want to see evidence of your ability to think things through. Andreessen echoes Eisenhower: plans are useless, planning is critical. Another military quote explains why investors think this way: "no battle plan survives first contact with the enemy" [==market].
So incubators have nothing to do with it. This is how investors at ANY scale think, be it 25k or 25 billion. "Ability to plan" is evidence of a specific personality trait (capacity to think at multiple horizons, anticipate consequences, do what-if thinking etc. etc.). This trait is usually what is labeled "visionary."
The other piece of the puzzle is another personality trait: "grit" (which is actually a psychology term). Grit is the ability to keep getting knocked down and getting back up, a la Cool Hand Luke. Not stupid persistence, but the ability to take a punishment as the world hammers you.
So to summarize, nobody ever invests in "execution" over "ideas" or vice-versa. People invest in "ideas plus people" where the people part is "is a visionary (can think things through) and has grit (can take a beating)."
I do believe that ideas are a necessary component though. Some investors claim to invest in dumb ideas just on the basis of believing in the people. I think that has to be fairly rare. At best you'll get investment opportunities that are combinations of ideas that are not obviously good or bad, coupled with great people.
http://trailmeme.com/walk/The_Ul...
To paraphrase, he says that what is important is evidence of ability to think things through. Investors ask for plans not because they want to test the believability of the proposed execution, but because they want to see evidence of your ability to think things through. Andreessen echoes Eisenhower: plans are useless, planning is critical. Another military quote explains why investors think this way: "no battle plan survives first contact with the enemy" [==market].
So incubators have nothing to do with it. This is how investors at ANY scale think, be it 25k or 25 billion. "Ability to plan" is evidence of a specific personality trait (capacity to think at multiple horizons, anticipate consequences, do what-if thinking etc. etc.). This trait is usually what is labeled "visionary."
The other piece of the puzzle is another personality trait: "grit" (which is actually a psychology term). Grit is the ability to keep getting knocked down and getting back up, a la Cool Hand Luke. Not stupid persistence, but the ability to take a punishment as the world hammers you.
So to summarize, nobody ever invests in "execution" over "ideas" or vice-versa. People invest in "ideas plus people" where the people part is "is a visionary (can think things through) and has grit (can take a beating)."
I do believe that ideas are a necessary component though. Some investors claim to invest in dumb ideas just on the basis of believing in the people. I think that has to be fairly rare. At best you'll get investment opportunities that are combinations of ideas that are not obviously good or bad, coupled with great people.