Some markets (especially in technology) are opening with very low barriers to entry. But some markets are more closed than ever.
Actually, a few businessmen in my home town got together and started a bank. Tesla Motors is an example of a car company started, according to Wikipedia, by a couple of guys with personal funds (while they created the business plan). Regularly, although rarely, companies start out small, attack some market, and then grow into the multinational corporations.
some markets are more closed than ever.
I definitely don't agree with this, at least not the examples that you mentioned. Technology makes it easier in all industries. Biotechs in pharma. Five Guys Burger and Fries in restaurants. Boutique hedge funds in finance. While I don't know the oil industry, it sounds like there are a lot of areas where a small startup could focus on and eventually become a bigger company, like owning a drilling rig (and run it well and according to best practices), or underwater surveying, or something.
"Musk’s willingness to funnel his own cash into Tesla has for years sustained the faith of fellow investors and reassured would-be car buyers in 2008 when the company’s finances were in perilous shape." ... "Tesla, likewise, is dealing with its cash flow problems by borrowing money from a friendly source — the United States government, which has eagerly backed cleantech startups through a Department of Energy loan program. Tesla burned through $37 million in cash in the last three months of 2009, according to amended S-1 documents, filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission in preparation for its IPO. Tesla slowed this burn rate in the first quarter of 2010 to $8.4 million, but only by drawing down part of a $465 million loan from the DOE, while reporting a net loss of $29.5 million. Tesla’s sales were flat year-over-year in the first quarter, but declined precipitously in the U.S., according to a former Tesla executive."
My point is just that Tesla is not in fact a good example of how "anyone today" can start a successful capital-intensive business like a car company (which is how it was being used above).
That said, the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has indeed shown some light on potential niche fields that could be accessible to start-ups, e.g. Kevin Costner's Ocean Therapy device.
That's not the only way to build an oil company.
There are lots of folks who rent an on-shore drilling rig.
If you hit reasonable amounts of oil, transportation appears. Sometimes it's in the form of a guy who builds a pipeline from said small field to a place with better transportation.
Those are two of the many ways that folks have built oil companies without fleets of ships and the like. (It's not just "dirty work" - there are many tech opportunities in oil-relevant data analysis.)
For example, the only US billionare who died this year started his oil company with $10k and a pickup.
Stats:
* There are thousands of independent oil and gas producers in the United States.
* Independent producers develop 90 percent of domestic oil and gas wells, produce 68 percent of domestic oil and produce 82 percent of domestic natural gas.
* Most independents have fewer than 20 employees.
See the "Independent Petroleum Association of America": http://www.ipaa.org