San Jose Biocube

The San Jose Biocenter is one of the finest startup accelerators that I have had the experience working with.
The Team
I have clients in about a dozen incubators across the United States, and I have personally visited them all. I can safely say that of all of these centers, the SJBC is run by the most professional, intelligent, organized, and friendly individuals that I have met in the startup community. They take a genuine vested interest in each company. Whether it is an affiliate member who does not have permanent space but rather uses the center on occasion — or a 20 person post Series-​A company — all clients receive the same level of attention and respect. When working with the SJBC on behalf of my clients they are so responsive (Minh in Operations returns emails in minutes!) and dedicated to connecting entrepreneurs with VCs (Erika is the master connecter and you can immediately tell when you meet her!).
The Network
What I really enjoy is that you can see entrepreneurs who are in unrelated fields connecting with each other. The environment that the SJBC fosters is quite dynamic, progressive, and fun! In the Bay Area there are many «co-​working spaces» that have been popping up. Do not confuse these with incubators. Incubators do not just provide space, they help companies grow. The myriad of workshops and events that put residents in front of respected VCs (Alloy Ventures, Khosla Ventures, etc.) are not simply a handful. Look for yourself on their homepage — the events speak for themselves. Stephanie has done such an excellent job spearheading the events. One thing you will notice is that the SJBC is about quality of events — not quantity.
The Facility
State of the Art. I am not aware of any other facility that can offer a 2 employee boot strapped bioscience R&D company such equipment that is found at the SJBC.
Overall
There is a reason the SJBC won the NBIA Incubator of the Year. It is the finest facility run by the best team which truly accelerates their clients growth. As the aforementioned statements clearly allude to, I highly recommend the San Jose Biocenter. Hats off to Melinda Richter for a job well done!

On the surface, the San Jose BioCenter seems like a great idea. They are an «incubator» with common resources to be shared by blossoming companies. These companies need the shared resources because they are young and cannot afford their own. SJBC partners with numerous companies (BDO, Veolia, Fisher Scientific) to provide their tenants with discounted services.
I’m going to restrain myself with this review as to not instigate legal action. I was there for 1 year and three months. I have all of the emails to back myself up.
Email: Even now, after dozens upon dozens of requests to be removed from the mailing list, I continue to receive their spam. I do not know if they are doing this to aggravate me, but I would not be surprised. That is the kind of staff that works there.
Services: They frequently bill you for services and do not supply invoices unless you badger them. For example, they quoted me for fume hood cleaning and waste disposal at over $ 1K. When the work had been completed, I found out I had already been charged the quote. I requested an invoice. After they told me that it was not normal for them to give out the invoice, they did. It was a nominal 10% of what SJBC had quoted. Furthermore, I noticed that Veolia had already charged my bank card. I called Veolia and they said SJBC should not be charging me. Not only had SJBC charged me the entire quote, they also tried to charge me after Veolia already had. This happened on numerous occasions.
Contract: When I was negotiating the lease with SJBC, they wanted me to sign everything for «San Jose BioCenter.» SJBC was not a legal entity. The company is technically run by San Jose State University and after extensive discussion, I learned that the money and legal documents were supposed to be signed to San Jose State University Research Foundation. I won’t get into specifics, but knowing the family that was involved in SJBC, they must have been moving money around to have tried to harass me into just signing the documents and checks over to SJBC to get it over with.
Community Rooms: There were shared culture rooms: Bacteria, Tissue, and maybe Virus? Over the weekend, someone cultured bacteria in the tissue culture room and spilled it all over the hood. It was found out by that Monday. We were all notified that it had occurred and had been cleaned up. IT HAPPENED AGAIN SHORTLY AFTER. Only then was this person banned from the room. Only after this person had jeopardized what could have been someone’s entire life’s research… TWICE.
Community Equipment: I had a box of a few dozen vials of HEP-​G2 cells that I’d cultured myself inside the community nitrogen storage. Each vial, if purchased through ATCC, costs $ 348 including shipping and handling. I had labeled my box with tape. Admittedly, it was my first time using nitrogen storage. For your reference, tape falls off. Either way, EACH VIAL WAS LABELED. I went to get a vial a few months later and THE BOX WAS MISSING. Let’s say it was 36 vials…36×348 = $ 12,528. That was my labor and resources that went missing. I spent an entire afternoon searching every single box for my samples. I realized that every single slot was full… someone must have thrown away my box to make more room! SJBC said I should have labeled it better. They took no responsibility whatsoever. I had to badger them just to send out a mass email. HEP-​G2 cells are very common… what if they had been novel cells?
These are just five not-​so-​tiny of examples of my time at SJBC. I could spend a week writing a short book about my experience with them (it’s all coming back now…). I know that many companies will never request an invoice or ask any questions, and for these reasons, they will say they had a good experience. But I will not be ripped off! The day I signed the lease I regretted it. I had just moved to the Bay Area and this was the only place that I knew of that had these services. They’re not. Thank god.