I would tend to agree that YC cookie-cutter clones are probably not going to succeed, but there are probably niches that are underserved. One that immediately comes to mind, just from the various discussions here, is the "I want to found a company, but I'm not in the US, and there's no such thing as a company founder visa."
In this kind of forum that encourages entrepreneurship even in the face of stiff competition I'm surprised that many people dismiss the notion that someone could make a better seed funding organization than YC.
There are many successful entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley and elsewhere who would be great startup advisors and inspiration leaders. If they decided to start YC clones I don't see why they couldn't attract great talent. They may even be more successful than YC at generating high returns on their investment. Luck plays a huge factor in startup success, after all...
There has been lots of discussions on what YC is and how to emulate YC. I don't think these discussions are wrong or misguided. I just think they are missing an important point which is that we are in the midst of a great generational change of consumer pattern (both for hard goods and for information). And the only way to catch this wave is if you are part of this wave. Being an older entrepreneur (much older than the typical YC'er), I speak for myself when I say that I can only be a spectator and watch everything at awe. But it would be very difficult for me to lead any startup opportunities that exploit this change (at least not by myself).
So I think the key to success for YC is not the incubation aspect nor the micro-loan aspect (both of which exist outside of YC). I think the key here is that the YC'er are encouraged to view themselves as the ultimate "surrogate" customers, that they should lead the charge and they have the right to because they are both technologists (i.e, hackers) and representative of their generation.
One reason Y Clone-ators may fail is lack of imagination. YC was not handed their recipe from the heavens. If these clones had any creativity, they'd be modifying the recipe to see if their ideas could make it better.
For example, why not a 4 month boot camp preceded by a 1 month crash course in business, presentation skills, etc. I'm not saying this is a better implementation, only that if the clones thought for themselves, they'd be doing more interesting things, which would tell me they were smarter and actually people I'd want to learn from. I'm afraid to take creative advice from someone whose big innovation is copying YC. I think YC's model is better, and it may be a good thing for it to spread, but none of the clones I peeked at have impressed me much so far.
Really? That's what college and working a regular job is for. If you're starting a company, taking two weeks off to be exposed to the corporate world would be worse than a waste of time.
