Uber is one of the few startups that I would call legitimately disruptive, because it uses technology to take customers from the legally regulated taxi industry

Uber is one of the few startups that I would call legitimately disruptive, because it uses technology to take customers from the legally regulated taxi industry. Airbnb and Aereo are also what I would consider disruptive. Tesla Motors perhaps. I think that whether local governments have passed or tried to pass legislation banning a given startup is a good litmus test for how "disruptive" a startup really is. If your startup doesn't have any serious legal challenges thrown in its path, it's probably not very disruptive. The first thing incumbent corporations will do when faced with a legitimate threat is use their political influence to try to make the threatening business model illegal.