

Offer HN:  Are you a startup founder?  Want some free PR? - fapi1974

I'm producing a webseries about Silicon Valley - it's basically Entourage, but based here in the Valley.  I'll be launching a Kickstarter fundraising project in the next few days, and as part of the fundraising I'm doing "30 Days of Startup Stories."  I will feature your story and you get to piggyback off the PR for the project.  What I'll need your best startup story to feature in my update.  I'll be asking for feedback on the stories, and the best ones will make it into the series itself - which would obviously get you even more exposure.  Remember this is drama - so it's not a product pitch - it's killer products, crazy founder stories, lust, betrayal, absurdity, coincidence, debauch, or whatever else you have experienced that will make people go "no...fricking...way."  Here are a couple I've gotten so far:<p>- fired my best friend
- lost a $10mm deal because I was 10 minutes late
- lost 3 girlfriends in 2 months<p>Your only commitment is a few sentences of text to get featured in 30 Days of Startups...easy!  Write to me at fernando at valleyseries dot com with 2-3 sentences on your startup and your story.  Or drop your story in comments if you'd like...I'm sure we'll get some doozies!
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JulianMiller520
If I were an Angel or VC, I'd check this list against my upcoming meetings and
cancel meetings with any founders who would or could focus time on being the
"entourage" of the valley. IMHO it shows a propensity for focusing on the
notoriety as opposed to the process. I believe Ashton said it best when he
spoke about shutting off as soon as founders were affected by thoughts of "the
effect" as opposed to being focused on the problem they are trying to solve.

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dpapathanasiou
And yet Techstars NYC forced all its startups to be part of a similar show on
Bloomberg.

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danielamitay
The founders featured in the Bloomberg series agreed to the coverage. There
were other TechStars NYC companies that did not agree.

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dpapathanasiou
Not exactly.

Bloomberg chose not to feature everyone, but all startups had to agree to be
on the show or leave the Techstars program:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3133198>

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ca-rl
Not sure what this will do for the startup community as a whole... I
personally wouldn't want to contribute to the "over hype" of start up life -
people think it's all fun and games but often forget how much work goes behind
building a successful business and product. Just my 2 cents.

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jiganti
Dropping out of University of San Francisco before my startup even launches
next month. Spending all my money to pay a couple developers for the prototype
and hoping all goes well. I am very confident.

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fapi1974
I'd probably need a bit more detail - but send me an email!

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volandovengo
Story for you: I quit my corporate job and then had a co-founder bail on me 1
week later. So I had to ask my old boss to take me back. Luckily he agreed. I
then quit 6 months later.

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fapi1974
Sign me up - send me your details via email. We might want to anonymize it :-)

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ed209
> lost 3 girlfriends in 2 months

How do you even get 3 girlfriends in two months?

Surely anything shorter than a few months with someone is not considered a
girlfriend!

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JonLim
It's not difficult if you meet and get friendly with a lot of women. Keep in
mind boyfriend/girlfriend is just a title and you can actually have one for a
day if you want.

Hell, Kim Kardashian had a marriage for 75 days, that's about the same time
frame, no? #rimshot

~~~
fapi1974
Also, the point of the story was that each of them was a "real" prospect that
the founder was really into. But multiple stood up dates sent them packing!

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ed209
how can you possibly be "really" into someone that many times in 2 months...
it's like something out of High School Musical

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callmeed
My friend and I were just discussing how awesome it would be to have a reality
show/movie/drama series about some startups and founders in the valley–but
mixed with a lot of what you described (lust, betrayal, absurdity, etc.).

Post your kickstarter project when it's live–I'll contribute.

~~~
fapi1974
Awesome! I'll do that. And the cool thing is that all sorts of people have
THOUGHT of doing this - but no one really has,yet.

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corywatilo
Call me crazy, but I'm kind of glad I don't have enough drama to make it on
this show...

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fapi1974
Not crazy at all - and honestly I want to do a great job of showing how dreary
and depressing it can get - the internal drama is real!

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lbarrow
You might be interested in talking to this guy:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3221094>

~~~
fapi1974
Great suggestion - will do.

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drnex
We have cool stories, but we are based in Mexico City. Is that cool?

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fapi1974
Of course! Remember these are ideas that will form the basis for some fiction
- I'd love to hear all about it!

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aussiegreg
Nice idea, going to cause some trouble I think..

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firefox
aren't all disruptive/new/exotic ideas causing some kind of trouble?

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jaequery
do companies have to be in the valleys?

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fapi1974
Not for the little profiles I'm doing during fundraising - just an interesting
story is great.

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davidhansen
We're not based out of silicon valley, so I'm not sure if we qualify. That
said:

"Cofounder: set up shop in grandma's living room and lived on the couch. Me:
quit my prior startup, endured business partner's rage, dumped girlfriend,
moved to a different state. Business: bootstrapped, profitable, growing."

Probably not dramatic enough, but there it is.

