Seattle’s broad array of incubators and accelerators run the technological gamut, offering everything from workshops filled with manufacturing tools to access to experienced entrepreneurs ready to deliver hard truths. Some national and international outfits are represented here, but most were spawned and raised right here in the Pacific Northwest.
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Top Incubators and Accelerators in Seattle
- Fledge
- Techstars Seattle
- Alexa Accelerator
- Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence
- Galvanize
- CoMotion Labs
- Founder Institute
- Pioneer Square Labs
- Microsoft ScaleUp
Fledge runs a 10-week program from April to May out of Impact Hub Seattle, a social enterprise-focused coworking space in Pioneer Square. While Seattle is their global headquarters, Fledge also runs accelerators in Barcelona, Spain and Lima, Peru — with plans to expand to Lisbon, Portugal. Graduates of the program, known as “Fledglings,” include a range of social enterprises and come from all over the world.
Location: Runs out of the Impact Hub Seattle coworking space at 220 2nd Ave. South, Seattle.
Category: Accelerator
Techstars is one of the nation’s largest accelerator networks and has been running in Seattle for nine years. Techstars Seattle cohorts run for three months, and accept both national and local businesses into the program. Notable alumni include Outreach, Apptentive and Remitly.
Category: Accelerator
Techstars collaborates with Amazon’s Alexa Fund to create the Alexa Accelerator, which help startups focused on — you guessed it — voice-activated technology. According to their website, any innovations in the realms of “connected home, entertainment, speech science, enterprise, on the go, family-focused technology and connected play” are welcome to apply. Cohorts get to play with technologies like Alexa Voice Services, Alexa Skills Set, Amazon Launchpad and Amazon Web Services.
Category: Accelerator
The Allen Institute is a large, multifaceted Seattle organization devoted to understanding the human brain. Its artificial intelligence incubator allows startups to access the kind of AI talent that companies like Microsoft, Google and Facebook have in-house. The Allen Institute accepts applications from pre-Series A startups and, once it has accepted a company, works with them over six to 18 months.
Location: 2157 North Northlake Way, Seattle
Category: Incubator
Galvanize is all about creating access into tech, helping those with an idea and a bit of drive gain the skills they need to succeed. Located in Pioneer Square, a network of mentors runs a 13-week full-time course in data science, a 12-week part-time front end web development course and a host of one-off events on coding, programming and more.
Location: 111 South Jackson St., Seattle
Category: Incubator
This eclectic Tacoma “makerspace” gives entrepreneurs (as well as inventors and artists) easy access to leading design and prototyping equipment, as well as classes to further their skills. They have tools and facilities for laser cutting, 2D design, 3D printing, scanning, design, Arduino, Raspberry Pi, CNC routers, MIG welding and a CNC plasma cutter.
Location: 1938 Market St., Tacoma
Category: Incubator
Hosted by the University of Washington, CoMotion Labs provides laboratory space, networking, learning and services for 60 to 90 pre-Series A startups in life sciences, engineering, clean tech, augmented and virtual reality, medical devices and IT. They aim to partner with startups both inside and outside the UW community at the pre-seed stage and throughout their scaling process. A company must have fewer than 15 employees to qualify.
Locations: Fluke Hall, 4000 Mason Rd., Seattle; HQ, 4545 Roosevelt Way Northeast, Seattle; Startup Hall, 1100 Northeast Campus Pkwy., Seattle
Category: Incubator
The Entrepreneurs' Organization has a network of more than 12,000 businesses around the world. Their accelerator program is open to founders or owners whose businesses bring in between $250,000 and $1 million in gross revenue. Membership gets you access to events, leadership programs, forums for entrepreneurs and education courses — along with that huge worldwide network.
Category: Accelerator
The Founder Institute is no joke. They provide a rigorous curriculum designed to jam years of hard lessons, scalability and growth into three and a half months. They claim that less than 30 percent of entrants usually graduate from the program, and take a methodical, granular and honest approach to their mentorship, unlike other programs that may be easier to complete and only offer general advice.
Category: Accelerator
Madrona is not your typical incubator. Their approach is to adopt founders, run their ideas through a selection process and fund the few that survive, essentially coupling external vision with internal business acumen to spin out startups. They’re also taking applications for their first accelerator class, which will start in September 2018.
Location: 999 3rd Ave., Seattle
Category: Incubator
Pioneer develops startup ideas with entrepreneurs, either validating or killing them. They keep a running tally of these on their website, and at the time of writing the “ideas spun-out” to “ideas killed” ratio was 6:79. For the concepts that make it, the studio brings its venture capital backing and collective experience to bear.
Location: 240 2nd Ave. South, Seattle
Category: Incubator
Formerly known as Microsoft Accelerator, ScaleUp is catered toward Series A companies and offers advice on just about everything, from enterprise selling to building a positive and enduring culture. The program runs in eight cities around the world: Tel Aviv, Sydney, Shanghai, London, Berlin, Beijing, Bangalore and, of course, Seattle.
Location: 3709 Northeast 39th St., Redmond
Category: Accelerator
Bellevue’s Village88 hosts up to five startups at any one time, providing between $10,000 and $200,000 worth of engineering resources over the course of three to six months. There is a clear timetable for the use of those resources, and each partnership has carefully-designed programs for acceleration.
Location: 10777 Main St., Bellevue
Category: Accelerator
