[psalaun]

A car race is a zero-sum game, which is not the case of economics (according to orthodox economists at least), so if there was a magic recipe for startups success, more of them would generate wealth, the pie would grow, therefore less should die?

[kingstnap]

You can have locally zero sum effects.

Either you fight over a saturated market. (Zero sum)

Or you try to grow the market. (Non zero sum)

Or you try to diversify into new markets. (Mixed, non zero sum if its greenfield research into new technologies, zero sum if old).

[tlb]

Yes, and indeed more startups are addressing more markets every year. The total number of attempts and successes are both up, keeping the success rate fairly constant.