June brought a surprise with an unexpected and immediate reduction in funding from government supporters.  The realization is that incubators, like companies, should be cautious about relying on one or two customers.  Incubators should consider pursuing core funding in exchange for growing jobs and taxes for a regional economy.  For example, the companies MTA helped start from the idea stage accounted for over $50M in salaries and consultant costs last year, jobs which did not exist three years ago.  Despite this profound impact we are not insulated from a reduction of funding from core funding.  Therefore, incubators should augment their revenue sources.  Our sources include core government funding, fee-for-service revenue, and now program-specific revenue.  This diversity should help MTA ride the ebbs and flows of core government funding.