Copying Y Combinator - If there's a right way, what is it?
iamelgringo: It's an interesting question, and I'd love to see your dissertation after it's done.  Thanks for being willing to post drafts, etc...It seems that a lot of cities/regions want to start tech incubators as a means of boosting the local economy.  A number of cities that I've lived in want to start a "Silicon Prarie" or a "Silcon Forest" or a "Silicon FooBarBaz" in their neck of the woods because successful tech businesses produce a lot of good jobs and tax revenues.  So, the city starts an incubator, promote their new downtown as a tech hub, and hope for technology companies to spring up and boost the local economy.I believe that one of the reasons that Y Combinator succeeded was because it wasn't about boosting tech companies in regions, it was about funding startups.  PG and Co. set out to hack the economy by seed funding crap loads of startups.  So, to that end, they started funding startups in the locations that were best suited to that:  Boston and SV.  They then went on to localize primarily in Silicon Valley because they thought it was the best move for their startups.  ( and they were sick of being bi-coastal )The difference in those two motivations, is I believe a watershed between the wins and the fails.  YC has done what's best for their startups because that's their primary goal.  The vibe I get is that a lot of other incubators try to do what's best for their region and are therefore conflicted.