Because every corporation these days want in house innovation and they can do it cheaply by incubating startups that they will eat once they are on something.
Cisco tries to create some buzz, as a company that most of the time you don't hear about...
On paper this looks great. Get in on the startup game.
The skeptic in me asks:
- Do you lose out on network effects by limiting it to 5 at a time? (Isn't part of the benefit of ycombinator that you're part of the larger family?)
- Are there any success stories of this type of in-house accelerator programs? I remember a lot of not so great outcomes in the 2001 timeframe.