Agreed. If you consider his habits of:

1) seeding his former apprentices with funding in exchange for a small amount of equity in their new printing ventures, 2) forming non-profit organizations to address public needs (such as subscription libraries, fire departments, and street sweepers) 3) forming groups of like minded tradespeople who were interested in improving themselves and their communities through ventures like 1) and 2)

...then one might even say that Benjamin Franklin was a kind of 18th century YCombinator