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This paper compares two processes of creation and development of start-ups in a metropolitan area of Southern France (Marseille). In the first step, a set of initially autonomous start-ups are led to establishing relationships of a quasi-organizational form and later to be embedded into a wider cluster at the regional level. In a second case, various teams or individuals initially organized within a large technological company, left it through a spin-off process, created their own small enterprises, gained real autonomy, and later became embedded and finally inserted themselves into another cluster at the regional level. The paper shows that in both cases, we are dealing with alternative processes of autonomization and integration, during which membership of a global set of multiple projects (local) and intervention by intermediary institutions (regional) generates stabilized and innovative clusters. © 2008 Lavoisier, Paris. All rights reserved.