SpaceX didn't invent Starlink, they just had the capital to get past the initial high expediture beforw the project becomes viable. Many other people attempted to build a Starlink-like constellation before SpaceX. They failed because they couldn't fund the satellite rollout phase.
They couldn’t fund the satellite rollout phase because nobody had invented a cost effective reusable rocket before SpaceX. And that’s the technology I’m talking about, not Starlink itself. My point about Starlink is that it exists mainly because SpaceX already outscaled the entire existing launch market and has to generate their own demand.
It's more that reusable rockets don't make sense unless you have a lot to launch. SpaceX had to find some a way to make cash from mass in orbit, and telecom is one of the few ways to actually do that. It's rather telling that nobody else has put significant amounts of mass in orbit since the arrival of the Falcon 9.
