If you limit the world to Silicon Valley that's probably true.<p>With startup school coming to London accelerators elsewhere will definitely be starting to get worried, but for now YC is simply 'best of breed', not a monopoly.<p>Google has a near monopoly on search. YC definitely does not (yet) have a monopoly on the concept of acceleration or even the start-up scene in general.<p>The reason why they might achieve a monopoly at some point is because of the network effects in the alumni.