To me, this sounds a lot like a justification built upon an bias (i.e. of course the tool the start-up was trying to sell was what the potential customers neede

To me, this sounds a lot like a justification built upon an bias (i.e. of course the tool the start-up was trying to sell was what the potential customers needed, it must have been those darn data scientists preventing the sales). From my experiences at the time, there are a lot of such start-ups around, most of which did not actually entirely (or often at all) meet the needs of their customers, and were promising a lot more than they actually delivered. Whereas having data scientists in your organisation meant that at the very least, they were able to develop a proper understanding of your business, and actually create real value.