Ask HN: Joining an Incubator. Concerned About 2 Items in The Contract. Advice?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=727602
by jalammar • 17 years ago
8 8 17 years ago

I've been developing my web startup for a while now. I applied to this government funded incubator in my country to be able to use their services. It's not a profitable entity and aims only to boost technology startups in the country.

I applied to join, and after several meetings, they sent us the agreement contract. Two items stood out the most to me in the contract:

1) The Incubatee shall, permit the Licensor to participate in agreed negotiations or discussions in respect of Incubatee's business activities or the financing thereof.

And

2) The Incubatee shall, after expiry or termination of Agreement or after graduation and for five (5) years thereafter, provide the Licensor on regular intervals agreed on, with written reports showing its business status and business progress, number of its employees, turnover, capital on value, total third party investment, copies of audited balance sheet and accounts and other similar matters. This obligation shall survive any expiry and any termination or discharge of the Agreement.

Now the agreement does not include funding, although they can make it easier to get once we sign (and want it). The services I'm after are mainly office space, simplification of governmental procedures (in a 3rd world country these can get tiring), access to legal advice, and the advice they can deliver on things like business model and marketing (although they don't seem particularly savvy about web startups).

It's enticing because these services are free, they only want this monitoring and other measures that would help the success of the venture. I just wanted to make sure that these do not encumber our startup, or make it unappealing to potential investors.

What do you guys think? Is this okay or not?

PS: I'm assuming they want the data to monitor the performance of the businesses they incubate. The agreement states that this information will be treated as confidential.

Any help would be appreciated.

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