That's completely NOT what he said.

What he said is he is moving out of stocks and into certain startups. He made absolutely no generalizations about startups, and in general they are NOT "safer" than stocks (whatever that even means). Obviously certain startups are far safer than stocks, and vice versa. It's not even a point that makes sense to argue.

The point Lindzon was making was primarily about his feelings that the stock market is rigged based on the performance of the big banks.

Lindzon's background:

http://www.techstars.org/mentors/hlindzon/