In the real world, an intermediary puts two people in contact so that they can exchange ideas. This results in an e-mail or a meeting between the start-up and the partner. A mediator is in a logic of alignment. The start-up and the partner have a clear idea and the mediator tries to reach a consensus. If the mediator, like the intermediary, derives individual benefit from such a relationship, the result (the partnership) is rarely co-carried by them.

Going further presupposes, on the one hand, a perfect knowledge of the stakeholders (stakes, profiles, contexts), on the other hand, interpreting this knowledge according to the objective pursued, and finally, translating for each one this objective into a result (the partnership). It is this role of interpreter-translator that incubators/accelerators should have. It is more involving, delicate, and far more efficient.

It is true that this role is also that of the workers in the shadows!