These Are the Top 20 US Accelerators

> Those strict criteria kept out one notable program: Y Combinator, which ranked #1 in 2014. Hochberg and Cohen note that Y Combinator, a pioneer whose graduates have included Dropbox, Airbnb, and Reddit, has “evolved” its model into that of a hands-off seed fund.

> “Y Combinator is cashing in on the name it made for itself,” says Hochberg. “They’re talking about raising a multi-billion dollar late stage fund to take advantage of their model that selects great entrepreneurs rather than mold them.”

> Other accelerators that remain on the rankings are more hands-on than Y Combinator, which by metrics alone would have ranked first again this year. Some entrepreneurs enjoy the relative freedom the program offers, versus highly structured programs elsewhere.

>Notably absent in this year’s list are Y Combinator and RockHealth–both programs now classify themselves as seed funds rather than accelerators, and asked us to respect their evolution into a new model.

>This, of course, is not a statement about efficacy of those programs – based on the 2013 data submitted to the rankings team, Y Combinator would still have topped the list if they had not transitioned models.