No, it's not "the same thing". It's not equal-by-value, and it's certainly not equal-by-reference, which is what the title implied, at least to me: I saw it and thought "YC in Atlanta? But I thought they just decided to stick to the Bay Area!"
sanjayparekh, I think you should be a good sport and change this to something less misleading. It's great that you're launching a YC-inspired fund. The more the merrier as far as founders are concerned. Why not announce it accurately?
I'm sure it was well-intentioned. Separate question - why didn't you say "YC inspired", or something like that? Everybody who isn't dumb knows where the model came from (and you don't want dumb applicants). So why not just be open about the fact and celebrate it? It would increase my respect for you, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. And if you've changed the model, why not say so explicitly and talk about why? It would at a minimum make for an interesting blog post.
This has puzzled me for a long time about the other YC clones, the ones who insist on pretending that they sprang up sui generis and take all these pains to act original. Who do they think they're fooling? How can they not see the incongruence of insulting founders' intelligence this way? All they're achieving by acting so prissy about it is drawing attention to how inferior a copy they really are, and what a culture gap there is between them and the founders they're addressing.
Well, it's absolutely NOT the same "thing"!
I don't know pg in person, or any of his partners at YC, and I never talked to them in person... but here is what I know:
1- YC is hosted at the Silicon Valley, which is considered a huge advantage itself.
2- YC is a well known brand name in the seed funding, and if your startup goes to investor under YC's brand name, then they will listen to you, just because you are funded by YC, and they trust it.
3- If you are funded by YC, then everyone in the Silicon Valley will know about your startup so fast!
4- Because of YC, all the editors on the web, like TechCrunch will write articles about your startup. Like what happened with DivvyShot and others.
5- You would be so lucky to be funded by YC, simply because they are experts! Paul and his partner has a vision... it's not only about the money and investment! And their vision and ideas are probably playing a critical role in their startups life!