True, venture labs doesn't make the material clear until you sign up. The material is from a Stanford uni course, you can find it going through this blog http://eesley.blogspot.co.uk/. With startupplays, you can't sample anything until you pay first.

Virtual/online incubators like this are popping up seemingly weekly. Making startups pay at the point of entry will just move them to services that don't, cash tends to be one of the biggest problems for the target market.