I think you are rewriting history. Viaweb was selling shovels (enable small businesses to generate websites) Ycombinator is selling shovels (enable people to launch startups, initially for an outrageously low investment).

Selling shovels was one of the fundamental concepts during the first bubble, nothing new.

Webshops were nothing new either.

His innovation was turning startups into movement, largely using this website and blog about it so tirelessly (always using the term "startup") that he is credited with the concept.