I agree with your premise and might add that the 'lean idea' might not be defensible in the market. Make no small plans, and all that. There is also a related tangent in that there are many underserved markets that may not yield billion dollar babies but can provide great returns for founders and their investors. This, in a way, supports your contentions above, in that these big ideas for smaller markets rely on IaaS platforms to build their business. Without the platform they couldn't exist and it would be cost prohibitive to build the back end to service niche markets. The disconnect I find is that many of these niche businesses are barking up the wrong tree when it comes to sourcing capital. Instead of pursuing VCs they should be seeking Angel investors and crowd sourced funding. They can also benefit from the lean startup methods to bootstrap their business. In so doing, as their business grows, they may hit upon that big idea that takes them to nirvana.