I wonder about this. Was Google itself an outlier? I don't think so. Indeed I'd say you probably could have discovered Google using similar metrics the article claims they are using, such as scholarly trends (but possibly not founder history).

Google was not an outlier, they were from Stanford, etc, etc. But it doesn't imply anything about the possibility to catch outliers, they can't catch them with those rules.

Even for non outliers, how can you catch Microsoft in front of casual opportunities (DOS) that gives them an amazing opportunity. Chance and Rules collides.