This is good though I would argue that most of this is true for small to mid-size businesses (<200 people) as well without the extreme risk of not getting paid or working 80 hr weeks that happens at startups.
It depends exclusively on corporate culture. I've seen my share of small to mid-size businesses with an IBM-like culture of paperwork and "ask permissions thrice to the superior of the superior of your superior".
I work in a fairly large company (hundreds of thousands) and there is none of this paperwork culture at all. The fast-paced environment is exactly what I work in, time to market is everything and we sit opposite our users. The work is fascinating, I regularly chat with the global head of my dept (my boss' boss' boss) about details of something I'm working on.
There's lots of incentive to do well, and to have your own side projects, which can turn into big projects with budgets and people behind them.
Not saying the article is wrong, but there are many different styles of working across business sizes, and I'm not so sure that start ups are predisposed to not have any of the issues mentioned.
I expect it depends on the particular company, but I have noticed that there is a direct correlation between having a fully-staffed accounts department and paying your contractors on the last possible day you can get away with. (I'm sure someone will tell me that "it's just good business," but it shows a lack of empathy with small contractors who may be operating on a tight margin).
I'm not entirely convinced there's a real correlation, just because my observations agree with yours, but they do: Any business with more than one tier of bureaucracy offers vastly more opportunity to pass the buck, offer plausible excuses, or play good-cop/bad-cop than a three-person startup does.
