I'm struggling to find what's different in your description from Mr Kay's. I interpreted him as saying that start-ups focus on selling a thing to a customer and

I'm struggling to find what's different in your description from Mr Kay's. I interpreted him as saying that start-ups focus on selling a thing to a customer and your description backs this up rather than challenges it. I'll accept that start-ups (the idealised ones I read about, because I mostly work in agencies and more established companies), research their market, but I don't think this is the kind of research he's talking about. I think he's talking about mining the depths of a problem or of a unexplored facet of nature - and start-ups don't have the time or budget for that.