SquareLab: entrepreneurship doesn’t stop at incubation!

Beyond incubation: supporting business development

How can entrepreneurs be supported beyond the first few months of setting up their business? How can they be helped to structure their project, develop their activity, and find their place within the entrepreneurial ecosystem?

As the SquareLab Open Incubator has just entered into a partnership with PIC to provide entrepreneurs with continuity once their incubation period comes to an end, Fabrice Cailloux, Director of SquareLab, answers a few questions about this new collaboration, as well as the projects and profiles of the entrepreneurs currently receiving support.

SquareLab has just entered into a partnership with PIC: why was it important to create this continuity after the six-month incubation period?

The end of incubation does not mean that a project has reached maturity. After six months, entrepreneurs have generally clarified their value proposition, tested their initial hypotheses, and begun to structure their business model. There is still much to be done: securing their first customers, generating revenue, seeking funding, or building a team.

Leaving the incubator is therefore a pivotal stage. Entrepreneurs leave behind a cohort, a place, and a collective dynamic that have helped them move forward week after week. The risk is that they may find themselves more isolated as they continue developing their project.

Thanks to the partnership with PIC, they will be able to continue their journey in a stimulating environment, surrounded by other entrepreneurs, businesses, and experts. The workspaces offer a tangible advantage, but the real value lies in the meetings, exchanges, and synergies that this new ecosystem can foster.

Our shared ambition is to create continuity between incubation, launching an activity, and business development.

What characterises the new cohort of entrepreneurs currently supported by SquareLab?

The new cohort, supported from July 2026 to January 2027, brings together 15 project leaders: 60% men and 40% women.

One of its main characteristics is the diversity of stages of development. Ten entrepreneurs are still working towards launching their project, while five have already started their business and have joined SquareLab to challenge their business model, gain perspective, and consolidate their activity.

One third of the cohort is therefore made up of entrepreneurs who have already launched their businesses. This illustrates the evolution of our role: we support both the transition from idea to action and the consolidation or development of an existing business.

There is also considerable diversity in terms of profiles and experience. In this cohort, 24-year-old student entrepreneurs work alongside independent professionals with more than 25 years of experience in their field. These differences fuel the collective dynamic: everyone brings their own perspective, skills, and experience. More experienced entrepreneurs share their knowledge of the field, while younger participants bring different practices, new ideas, and alternative ways of approaching problems. This complementarity enables everyone to progress.

Beyond the initial idea, what do entrepreneurs most need support with today?

The initial idea is rarely the main challenge. The real challenge is turning that intuition into a project that customers want, is technically feasible, and is economically viable. We first support entrepreneurs in establishing whether they are addressing a genuine and sufficiently significant problem. They need to get out into the field, meet their target audience, test their hypotheses, and be willing to adapt their project based on what they learn.

They then need to structure a clear offering, find their first customers, and build a business model capable of generating sustainable revenue. Questions around funding, communication, and business development gradually come into play once the initial hypotheses have been validated.

We also place a strong emphasis on the entrepreneurial mindset: learning to make decisions in uncertain situations, moving forward step by step, assessing the level of risk one is prepared to take, and knowing how to build the right support network. The aim is to give entrepreneurs a method and reflexes they can continue to draw on after their time at SquareLab.

After several years in operation, how has SquareLab evolved, and what have you learned from supporting entrepreneurs?

SquareLab has progressively adapted its support approach through close contact with entrepreneurs and the realities they face. We have strengthened methods that enable projects to be tested quickly, learn from the field, and progressively reduce uncertainty around desirability, feasibility, and viability.

Our main lesson is that an incubator should not simply provide tools or knowledge. It should help each entrepreneur identify the next concrete step that will enable them to move forward and generate new evidence. Support must also remain personalised, as ambitions, constraints, and available resources vary significantly from one project leader to another.

Over the years, the collective, experts, and partners have also taken on an increasingly important role in our approach. An entrepreneur progresses through methodology, but also through the people they meet and the opportunities they are able to create around their project.

Today, SquareLab supports between 30 and 40 projects each year. Since its creation, 300 entrepreneurs have been incubated and 100 businesses have been launched. Supported companies also have a three-year survival rate of 90%. These results encourage us to further strengthen post-incubation support, particularly through partnerships such as the one established with PIC.

What role would you like SquareLab to play within Clermont’s entrepreneurial ecosystem in the coming years?

We want to make SquareLab a clearly identified entry point for anyone looking to turn an idea into an entrepreneurial project, whether they are students, graduates, employees, jobseekers, or already running a business.

Our role is to help these entrepreneurs navigate the first decisive stages: understanding their market, testing their value proposition, structuring their business model, and preparing for launch. To fulfil this mission fully, we need to work in close complementarity with other stakeholders across the region.

The partnership with PIC reflects this ambition. By strengthening connections between incubators, entrepreneurial spaces, businesses, experts, funders, and investors, we can offer project leaders clearer and more seamless pathways.

In the coming years, we also aim to develop our community, events, mentoring opportunities, and collaborations with businesses, notably through our new Culture StartUp platform. The ambition is to enable projects to emerge more quickly and under the best possible conditions, and then find, within Clermont’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, the right resources and people to support their continued development.