Not really a fair comparison. Unless the start-up was tax payer funded, and was doing objectionable things like selling customers credit card/personal information to third parties, and you knew about it, maybe then you would be lauded for exposing it. However no one would label you a hero for releasing a companies IP for the sake of it.
MAYBE if it was some company making bucket loads of money off of GPL code they were deliberately and knowingly abusing the license!
MAYBE if it was some company making bucket loads of money off of GPL code they were deliberately and knowingly abusing the license!