The article makes the mistake of equating universities with talent pool. Scotland has a much smaller talent pool of developers than many other countries and that's a fundamental bottleneck for any startup.
I would fully agree that a university education is not required in order to be considered talented (some of the most talented people I know didn't attend university), but at the same time having a degree shows a certain level of ability. If you have a CS degree, you should at least know your way around a computer, and the post-graduate research being done by universities is world leading. Being at the forefront of your field isn't talent, what is? (again acknowledging that this doesn't make those people product geniuses - a different form of talent!)
Scotland has a much smaller talent pool of developers than many other countries
Presumably only because the population is smaller than many other countries?
It wasn't clear but I was meaning talent to staff the startups, I don't think there would be a bottleneck! It would would stop the drain.