There are way more small businesses in any place that don't get billion dollar valuations or grant money than there are unicorns. So I think the answer already exists. They're just not newsworthy because they are plenty. Most of them are ran by hardworking smart people. People that don't measure themselves against billionaires but get satisfaction from the impact they have, even if its just in their local community.

I think that it's good that MIT wants there to be more and better incubators though; incubators may help people get on the right track and stay on it. Also, the idea to actively develop otherwise idle patents is great. Then if it's actually good, there is progress, and if not then it can provably fail and either be improved or written off; also progress. So all together: do itttt. How it'll be funded... yeah. Hopefully with some common sense.