Ignoring Advice an Incubators.

Despite increasing questions about the viability of incubators, two members of the Tech Coast Angels investment group have founded a new company to incubate and grow tech companies in the flourishing Ventura (101) Freeway Tech Corridor.

FortuneLab LLC will invest up to $500,000 in each company it chooses to incubate, and is currently in negotiations with entrepreneurs wanting to start their businesses under its umbrella. The company plans to have three companies under its roof by the end of the year.

"The analogy I use is that incubators are like radio stations. They have a single strength that only goes so far," said Peter Hartz, a partner at FortuneLab. "Our focus is the geographic area along the 101 Corridor, so Burbank to Ventura or Santa Barbara. While there are incubators like Idealab in Pasadena, and a new start-up incubator in Santa Barbara, we're the main incubator between those two points."

In addition to regular incubator functions, the company will also have a somewhat unusual feature to help aspiring tech entrepreneurs.

When the partners find an entrepreneur they like but who has a business plan they're not sure will succeed, they will invite the entrepreneur into a program in which FortuneLab executives and the prospective business owner work together to create a better business plan. If, after 90 days, the group cannot come up with a viable idea, the entrepreneur can leave and neither side has any further obligation.

Criticism from analysts of the incubator model did not deter Hartz and his partners, Peter Jonas and Lawrence Field, from founding their new company.

"What this is all about is trying to accelerate the ideas of entrepreneurs. I'm a firm believer that that can occur," Hartz said. "We've been involved in this process from start-up companies to public companies, and the funding ranges between those two events. That kind of experience, when given to an entrepreneur who may have a good idea but hasn't built a company before, has a very meaningful impact."