So what your suggesting is creating mini YCs with specialist interests?
For example you could have a mobile apps 'agent'. This person would seek out the best ideas for mobile apps, find the best teams, maintain connections with mobile blogs & mobile network operators and pass the best teams back up to main YC.
O'r you could have geographical specialists who, for example, look out for startups in the UK and send the most promising over to Boston/Mountain View.
Yeah Dan, that's right on. The basic business practices employed today would flow through to the tentacles of specialization and the over reaching controls and management would still reside at the top like any other holding company structure. It's likely you could improve on the typical holding company structure but something along those lines. I work at the Group level of a global financial services firm and I think my stripes are showing a bit here :) Not just mobile apps but also a p2p apps expert, b2b apps expert, transaction processing expert...the options are as broad as the marketplace. I'm thinking big.
For example you could have a mobile apps 'agent'. This person would seek out the best ideas for mobile apps, find the best teams, maintain connections with mobile blogs & mobile network operators and pass the best teams back up to main YC.
O'r you could have geographical specialists who, for example, look out for startups in the UK and send the most promising over to Boston/Mountain View.