It’s the first nomadic design-led incubator.

Its design-led, because after all of our years doing this, and the work we did at the Design Council, and our recent work in Pittsburgh, it makes perfect sense to take this approach into new business creation. We will be popping up everywhere, testing out different new prototyped parts of the incubator, and then we’ll find out what works, and scale it up.

You can find out more about it here.

We created a new way of boosting startups using design methods, strategic design and innovation thinking, coming out of our work on the Humanising Technology project that evolved into Designing Demand at the UK Design Council. Originally designed for students at Carnegie Mellon University, it has been refined for other audiences.

Its a unique method of getting the right kinds of new business the ideas tangible and in front of people and investors early. It connects earlier, embeds a clear vision of a future and helps people to navigate the startup phase with less risk and faster results. It is much more than bootstrapped efficiency moves. Its a generative approach to designing startups.

We call Upstarter a nomadic incubator – it goes where people are.

Here’s a film about the work we did at the Design Council, way back in 2003.