In the summer of 2007, Highland Capital Partners welcomed eight teams of fresh-faced college grads into its first business incubator program. Victoria Ransom and Alain Chuard worked together on tools for marketers to measure the effectiveness of their campaigns on Facebook (FB), Twitter, and other social networks. In July, Google (GOOG) agreed to pay $250 million plus performance incentives to acquire their company, called Wildfire. That brought the final price tag to $350 million, according to a person familiar with the transaction.
For most venture capital firms this would have meant a big payday and a bottle of Champagne. But Highland didn’t make any money on the deal—the firm never invested in Wildfire. “It kind of caught us by surprise,” says Michael Gaiss, who had run the incubator program since its inception. (Gaiss left his job as a Highland senior vice president in August but says he may still help out with next summer’s class.) “We had a look and talked to the team. I wish we would have invested.”
To read the original article: Running a Startup Incubator for Fun, Not Profit - Businessweek
