In the past few years, we’ve seen more startup incubators rise to the market. Even though the concept boomed in the early 2000’s, more companies today offer them as a norm – and we’re not just talking massive corporations like Sony or PayPal.

In fact, some of the most popular applications today leveraged incubators to establish their businesses. DropBox, Reddit, and Scribd, just to name a few, all have roots in Y Combinator, an incubator and accelerator located in California.

For us, this means our client relationships are changing. Even though we see businesses establishing agencies of record to handle all of their advertising and marketing, agencies are increasingly investing in their clients as well, especially startups. Talk about a flip in a relationship! It can be a great win-win situation, and each party is pushing the other to the next level. Some of these new equity-based relationships include cost-per-lead incentives or discounted service prices for a share in the client’s company.

In October 2013, PRPL launched PRPL Labs, our in-house incubator and business think tank. Services range from business consulting and data discovery to launching minimal viable products (MVPs). The adventurous nature of our company allows the Labs sector to flourish, while not many agencies in Orlando can say the same. Since launch, we’ve already released a few products, including a photo booth application called GIFn and a project management system, Profit, which other local agencies are already giving a test run.

But the experimentation doesn’t end there. PRPL is also a member of the Google Glass Explorers program, which keeps us on our toes. Although the device is not yet released to the public, we’re always brainstorming new application ideas for the wearable technology. Since the Glass Development Kit (GDK) released this past November, we are able to develop actual applications for Glass, and have already gotten our feet wet with a few opportunities.

PRPL welcomes startups to camp out and come make something big—you can even take over my desk! We’re focused on bringing new ideas to fruition and building partnerships with entrepreneurs that we truly believe have a solid foundation. To learn more about PRPL Labs and how we cultivate ideas to creation, visit PRPL.rs/labs.

The Surge of Think Tanks and Incubators

Weekly Digital Roundup (2.3.14)