It's not different at a small company. At a small company you have "pivots" or "going out of business" or "competition from another company", instead of "competition from another team"
Certainly, the market is fickle, but that is different than something political that is going on where you have no influence. It is completely conceivable that you optimized such that your product generated revenue far in excess of its costs, but that it is canceled for a (good) strategic reason.
Sure the difference is probably only psycholgical, but finding out that work you cared about was only a waste of time somehow feels more just if there was no market for it than if it had traction and the was shuttered for a reason you don't know.
In a startup (esp if it's your own), the psychological and emotional stakes are significantly higher. Also, there's no reason that politics can't find their way into a startup you're running. You just might not notice it because you've positioned yourself at the top of the tree of monkeys.