Former Myspace chief Mike Jones has launched a new start-up incubator known as Science, joining the plethora of tech entrepreneurs who have launched accelerators.<\/p>\n
<\/span> <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Jones was named chief executive of Myspace in October 2010. In this role, he oversaw global business operations for Myspace, Myspace Music and Myspace Mobile.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Jones is also the founder and former chief executive of internet company Userplane, acquired by AOL in 2006 for $40 million. Within AOL, Jones served as a senior vice president.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n In addition to managing Userplane within AOL, Jones coordinated with AOL subsidiaries and internal brands to enable distribution of web applications under the Userplane brand.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Jones is also chief executive of Tsavo Media, sold to Cyberplex in 2010 for $75 million.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Additionally, he serves as an advisor to private start-ups and currently sits on the boards of Docstoc, GumGum, MoVoxx, People Media and FreeConference.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Now he\u2019s announced he will immerse himself in the start-up world with the launch of Science, a start-up incubator, accelerator and studio.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Science, based in Santa Monica in California, will develop and incubate new business ideas, advise early stage start-ups and help \u201cWeb 1.0\u201d companies reinvent themselves.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n It will focus on smaller classes of potential companies, with a particular interest in eCommerce, mobile and social platforms.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to be involved in a small set of businesses that we run through the entire gauntlet and get them to success,\u201d Jones said earlier this week.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Science is aiming to be the gateway for venture capitalists in the LA tech scene by finding and producing innovative companies through a three-step process.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Firstly, start-ups will go through an incubation period before being injected with strategic and operational advice. They will then be exposed to late-stage investments.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The company has already raised $10 million from Social+Capital, Tomorrow Ventures, Rustic Canyon, White Star Capital and a handful of high-profile angel investors.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n It finds start-ups through \u201cvarious relationships\u2026 with investors, VCs and fellow entrepreneurs\u201d. Start-ups are also encouraged to introduce themselves to the company.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Jones says Science will provide all the basic resources so that start-ups can focus on \u201cimproving area expertise\u201d, and envisions Science will remain involved throughout the entire business cycle.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n His foray into the incubator scene follows the likes of Dave McClure and Paul Graham, the respective founders of 500 Startups and Y Combinator.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Both McClure and Graham established start-up accelerators after founding multiple businesses of their own. But according to Jones, Science will be different to both of these accelerators.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cA traditional incubator or accelerator is great for training entrepreneurs for three-month class cycles,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBut at the end of the day, when they walk out of the door with $50,000 in financing\u2026that\u2019s a tough place to be. They\u2019re still going to need structure around them.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think [the term] \u2018science\u2019 speaks to the theory we\u2019re going after. Scaling these businesses is much more a science than an art.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Former Myspace chief Mike Jones has launched a new start-up incubator known as Science, joining the plethora of tech entrepreneurs<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62242,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35414"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}