Incubators are a great way for small businesses to get ahead of their competitors. These investment businesses provide an opportunity for small businesses to have a shared workspace, networking opportunities, investor connections, and mentorships. San Francisco is one of the hottest places for startups and startup incubators, and they have plenty of amazing incubators for small businesses to seek services from.

There are only a few that make the cut and really stand out as the best options for small business owners in today's market. The following SF Incubators are helping some of the top Silicon Valley companies progress.

Matter

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What new small business does not want $50k to build their business with? Matter offers just that with their comprehensive program for small businesses that provide people oriented and results driven marketing efforts while providing for the general needs of the small business at hand. Matter focuses in media based organizations and recruits in New York City in addition to San Francisco.

Y Combinator

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If you need to refine your pitch to larger investors and gain some scratch in the meantime, Y Combinator is the startup incubator for you. By spreading their resources across many startups, they manage to build a new model for incubating these small businesses while still ensuring that you gain all of the attention and resources that you need to succeed, which culminates in a Demo Day filled with investors ready so sign a check that Y Combinator picks to listen to you. Y Combinator is one of the larges incubators and most prestigious incubators in SF.

Upwest Labs

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Do you need $20k over a four-month period in order to get your dreams off the ground? Well, if you are a small business in the Silicon Valley, Upwest Labs could provide you with this and more. In addition to seed funding, your small business can gain access to investors, mentors, and more through the comprehensive small business development program that Upwest Labs provides.

Parisoma

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If you have all of the funding that you need but would simply like to build your business in a dynamic space while saving money on offices, Parisoma is the Bay Area startup incubator for you. They also offer classes and other events to help your business grow past what you thought it could in a short amount of time.

Sandbox Suites

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A huge part of productivity is the ability to mingle with different ideas in people, which is part of why shared workspaces are so prolific within the startup incubator world. Sandbox Suites is one of these incubators that clearly focuses in development through a shared workspace, and provides a dynamic environment for small businesses in the Bay Area to both grow and flourish among other creative and progressive minds.

AngelPad

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While Y Combinator boasts an entirely new methodology with investing small amounts in large groups of startups, AngelPad offers the complete opposite in the same area by investing larger amounts of money in fewer startups over a longer period of time in order to provide a more intensive and tailored mentorship incubation program to the startups that they take under their wing.

500 Startups

: One of the hottest on this list is Dave McClures 500 Startups. Though it's almost to 1000 startups that they have accelerated, it's defiantly on the list of hottest incubators in San Francisco. They have a nice coworking space for every startup they invest in as well as mentor startups till demo day where they present to many large investors. They are located in Mountain View in the heart of Silicon Valley.

Tech Liminal

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If you are a tech worker in the San Francisco area, you need to check out Tech Liminal's rentable coworking space for tech workers. The affordable rate and innovative, envelope pushing workers that they attract are sure to give you the edge that you need against your competitors simply by working with them! It is a bit of a drive into Oakland, but the experience is definitely worth it.

Sudo Room

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With sudo being a keyword for programmers and hackers to gain instant administrative access to a system, it would make sense that the slogan for the Sudo Room would be "HACK THE WORLD!". As an open and free workspace, the Sudo Room aims to be a place where programming innovators can collaborate and learn from one another in a free environment.

Founders Space

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By working with investors and venture capitalists, Founders Space puts itself at the forefront of comprehensive small business incubation in the Bay Area by providing help for small businesses on all fronts instead of just specializing in one or the other. If you want the best help available to you in the Bay Area, Founders Space is the incubator for you, and positions are limited and in demand because of it! I've personally had the privilege of working with founders space and they have been awesome.

Not accelerators, but sites you should be paying attention to in the startup space: AngelList, DreamFunded, Gust, Draper University, and Startup Grind.