nitro, for some one like you, with a fair bit of experience in the industry alrdy, I don't know what you would gain from an incubator like this. You are in Chicago alrdy, so why not just plunk down a few 00k to buy a Merc (or CBOT) seat, and get a FCM to sponsor your link, write your own software and go at it? I mean, you probably have enough knowledge that those steps are trivial. It is not rocket science either way.
Let's say capital is a concern, go to any exchange member, show them your software, and ask them to back you for a 50/50 cut, simple, it is no diff than an existing floor member backing a new member back when there was a floor.
Outside of technology and capital, it is just a function of time and bash your head against it until something breaks.
Back to that little startup. TXC or something like that. Wall Street is a small enough place that I have dealt with some of the individuals there. But if you look closely, *none* of them are or were fund managers or traders, Alan is a lawyer, two technologists (and the CTO was never in HFT, he was a head of fixed income tech for a mutual fund), and a couple of former PB salesmen. Now, let me ask you a question, what do they have that you need? Technology? They won't know a HFT system if it hit them in the face. Capital? Ok, maybe, but they are a newly funded startup too, and backed by *one* funding source (look at the press release carefully), how much capital could they have access to?
And let's be frank, there is a huge chasm on wall street between "producers" (traders, PMs, or sales ppl) and "support janitors" (everybody else). So what do they provide? A bunch of ppl with nice senior janitor resumes?
If you are going to go thru the steps, drop me a line and I will give you some ideas.