Does YCombinator have a monopoly on the Startup Accelerator space like Sam Altman thinks?

[bozayo]

Is YCombinator the startup accelerator monopoly?? If so, how should "monopoly" in this domain be defined? (most deal flow, most demand for program acceptance, hottest companies coming out of it?). Seems like there should be more discussion about this considering the growing trend of accelerators.

If you think Y Combinator dominates the world of the startup accelerators, YC President Sam Altman agrees with you.

In an on-stage interview at TechCrunch’s Disrupt New York conference, TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington said he was trying to get something controversial from Altman, so he asked whether YC sucks “99.9 percent of oxygen out of the accelerator ecosystem.” Altman countered that other accelerators are “doing really cool things,” especially the ones that focus on specific areas like hardware.

Arrington pressed him on whether he considers Y Combinator a monopoly, and after a brief, awkward silence, Altman said, “Yeah. I think we get the best companies, which is 90 percent of the hard work.”

Full story here: http://techcrunch.com/2014/05/05/sam-altman-kinda-sorta-monopoly/