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Yeah, the claim caught me too.

Just an example: CMGI, Inc. was calling themselves an Internet Incubator around 1995.

Probably better to make a claim based on success.

CMGI and the other “incubators” of that era were nothing like YC. The label “accelerator” was applied to YC years after it was started because of the need for a generic term to describe YC and all of the clones. Whether or not that label was previously used for some other kind of business is irrelevant.

Makes sense. I suspected that might be the case, which is why I mentioned the possibility of something more specific intended. (In case other readers are struck by the same thought, it might be worth a footnote).

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