Most incubators are located far from head office. In theory, this helps insulate them from stale, corporate thinking, but it also makes it difficult to leverage parent-company skillsā a problem that becomes even more acute when the incubator is staffed by newbies who lack strong internal networks. In practice, while locating the incubator in Silicon Valley or Shoreditch, Londonās startup hub, may make it easier to hire fresh talent, it doesnāt offer much protection from executive meddling. In our experience, corporate paymasters often saddle incubators with expectations, policies, and processes that are ill-suited to the risky and hard-to-script work of birthing a new business. Moreover, a single incubator, with a relatively small staff, is unlikely to work on more than a few ideas at a time. This limits the chance of stumbling on the next big thing. For all these reasons, incubators seldom have a catalytic effect on the parentās fortunes.