[rytill]

I'm interested in this. Can you formalize your thinking here a bit more?

For instance, do you mean to say that, given the average company making $X net profit per month, it is harder to steer that company to grow to make $(X + Y) per month, than it is to start another company that makes $Y per month, from nothing?

Like sibling comment said, from a data-driven perspective that seems incorrect, but I wonder if your definitions of "value" or "difficulty" have some other nuance.