We need a Y Combinator for the mobile industry

I was reading this post by Fred on his AVC blog when I spotted this line about Y Combinator:

Paul is an entrepreneur who has formed Y Combinator to ‘microfund” first time entrepreneurs who are willing to drop everything and work night and day on an idea.

I flew over to ycombinator.com and took a look. The first thing I read was this:

Systematizing the two guys in a garage.

Fantastic summary! That’s essentially the proposition. Here’s a bit more from the Y Combinator frontpage:

Y Combinator is a new kind of venture firm specializing in funding very early stage startups. We help startups through what is for many the hardest step, from idea to company.

We invest mostly in software and Web services. And because we are ourselves technology people, we prefer groups with a lot of technical depth. We care more about how smart you are than how old you are, and more about the quality of your idea than whether you have a formal business plan.

Ahhh! That’s what I’ve been thinking about for a while. It’s rather thrilling to read about someone actually doing it. I expanded the concept I was considering a little in this post I made last month. Reading more about Y Combinator this evening fired off my imagination once more. Imagination and hope! Wouldn’t something like this — dedicated or bent around mobile — be brilliant? I’d be well up for being involved.

I wonder if any UK based investors (“could you elaborate on year 3’s discounted cash flow?”) would have the balls to do anything like Y Combinator. From my experience, prrrrrobbbbably not. Happy to be surprised though. Best to leave it to the Americans who know what they’re doing.