Then perhaps we agree at the margins. It all depends on what you consider to be a 'slight change' in the model. We also probably disagree slightly on what busin

Then perhaps we agree at the margins. It all depends on what you consider to be a 'slight change' in the model. We also probably disagree slightly on what businesses you are willing to claim as startups. Is a new restaurant a startup? How about a consignment store? A dev consulting shop? Even in the most commoditized industries with extreme competition, there is often a built in profit margin that is essentially accepted by the businesses in that industry, because it would be mutually destructive for it disappear entirely. I'd wager that most of the small business economic activity in the US comes from sole proprietors repeating business models verbatim and collecting that additional margin above and beyond their built in salary expense.