The author's point seems to be - don't try to corner the market, the days of us investing in 5% success rate "moonshots" that do corner the market is over because that 5% is now down to 0.5%, and easy liquidity events such as IPOs and acquisitions are getting harder to come by. Just make a decent product and swim along with all the other little fishes because we don't want any risky market-cornering equity on our balance sheet given the current exit environment.
That is, to put it mildly, an uncharitable way of interpreting a statement that most well-funded startups ought to be able to find a route to profitability without further growth capital if it's not forthcoming. If there's one single reason why 5% moonshots are in danger of becoming 0.5% moonshots it's the palpable contempt for the concept of a route to profitability that you're displaying. Having enough revenue to be able to grow [more slowly] once the VC cash has all been spent is not a bad thing, and it doesn't make you a "little fish".
It's even arguable a startup is not really that close to cornering a market if there's no route to breakeven point without taking on further funding. That basically means they're either too tiny to enjoy any economies of scale, not competitive enough to be able to price their product at breakeven point or haven't opened the money valve enough to actually have a real market at all yet. Sure, any startup keen on cornering a market should have estimates of just how much additional CLV can be realised if they raise another $50m to scale up the sales team rather than continuing on their current growth path with the smaller team, but few of them should need that Series C to keep the lights on.
The author's point seems to be - don't try to corner the market, the days of us investing in 5% success rate "moonshots" that do corner the market is over because that 5% is now down to 0.5%, and easy liquidity events such as IPOs and acquisitions are getting harder to come by. Just make a decent product and swim along with all the other little fishes because we don't want any risky market-cornering equity on our balance sheet given the current exit environment.