This is not really a startling revelation, businesses need revenue to succeed but where does revenue come from? Customers .. duh! They also need to attract customers to gain angel inventors, funding, and partnership deals.

I'm not sure that I agree with the author's opinion that time would be better spent innovating on User Interface / usability. Having run a business since 2000, I would say that delivering an innovative service to a very specific marketplace and at the same time developing a rapport with that segment should be the ultimate goal of any startup.