I think that some of the better startup ideas would actually do better during a recession than otherwise. If your product or service reduces a business cost or opens up an untapped (monetary, social, or other) revenue source, people and businesses will be more likely to use your product/subscribe to your service during a time when business is slow. The two things you need as a startup are attention and early adopters. If business slows, both businesses and people have more downtime (which is just more attention in the attention pool that you can vie for) and are more receptive to novel solutions to their tight budget. (Your startup is novel, right?)

In short, businesses that increase market efficiency in novel ways seem, to me, more likely to succeed during a recession. This is so obvious that I'm surprised the article didn't mention it.