The Art Of Science

Like many great startup ideas, the formation of L.A.-based incubator, investment firm, and accelerator Science had its origins at a dinner. In 2007, Peter Pham and Mike Jones found themselves working in L.A., having recently sold companies to News Corp. and AOL, respectively. The duo, who were friends, started to organize dinners, called Beta South, to bring together startup founders and tech leaders in the area. Pham says that attendance at these dinners was in the single-digits but soon expanded to include many more. At that point, Jones and Pham started thinking about ways to foster entrepreneurship and bring more VC dollars to L.A. Flash forward four years, and Jones had just sold News Corp.’s Myspace, where he was CEO, to Specific Media. As he was thinking about what to do next, he came back to what he and Pham discussed.?He was certain that the best way to foster more entrepreneurship in L.A. would be to combine the best elements of Idealab, Y Combinator, Betaworks and a VC firm into a startup-creation machine. From the start, Jones had a very different view on how to structure Science, and it?s this unique model that he hopes will set it apart from the hoards of incubators that are emerging in the current market. While many of the companies that Science is incubating are interesting, what’s far more intriguing?is the process through which Science forms, develops and then supports these companies. Jones reconnected with BillShrink founder Pham who had just, infamously,?left the photo sharing app Color, in 2011 at the The Lobby conference, a yearly gathering hosted by August Capital partner David Hornik. Pham was brought on to control investments and the money side of things. One Part Art, One Part Scientific Formula After spending years at News Corp. and AOL, Jones had observed the structure of media companies, realizing that the right management structure could provide strategic services to launch and support businesses.?For example, large media companies have some assets that they own 100 percent of, some assets they own part of, and some assets they produce in-house to support other content. This model, says Jones, has not been applied to venture capital yet. “Why weigh a startup down with things like developing customer-acquisition tools, handling financing and legal operations,” he explains. “We have an operational and strategic way we build companies, and there is a set structure behind this.” And Science’s

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