This whole thing: Ycombinator, the 100&#x27;s of start-ups that it has funded, the network of alumni it has created, the very website you are writing this on and the community that goes with it..<p>And sure, that money would have flowed in but the track record of YC to date is one that I think would not have been duplicated without the unique elements that YC has managed to bring to the table. They literally hacked the start-up world and that&#x27;s nothing to swipe under the table.<p>A ton of wanna-be competitors has come and gone (some are still there) but none of those have done nearly as well as YC. Whether or not it will continue for ever is unknowable but for now the results are quite amazing and not to be compared with what &#x27;the industry&#x27; managed to achieve in the same timeframe. No other group has managed to create this number of start-ups, no other group has managed to change the dynamic between founders and funders this dramatically.