
Companies play around with their origin stories - rayuela
https://www.wsj.com/articles/forever-young-tech-startups-like-hollywood-celebrities-fudge-their-age-1502461847
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kapauldo
Decluttered
[https://read.feedly.com/html?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsj.com%2...](https://read.feedly.com/html?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsj.com%2Famp%2Farticles%2Fforever-
young-tech-startups-like-hollywood-celebrities-fudge-their-
age-1502461847&theme=white&size=medium)

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WalterGR
Why is the font so big on mobile?

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firasd
I see this weird pattern on Shark Tank (which to be fair is definitely not
generally representative of tech startup culture) where the 'Sharks' turn down
founders by glibly saying, "Oh you've been working on this for X years without
any sales? Pass." It doesn't seem right to me. I get the idea of proving your
idea through sales, but a product that's ready right now is a product whether
it was made overnight or through tinkering over time...

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droidist2
I've noticed they really don't like to take risks on that show, they want to
invest in sure things that already have a proven market and tons of sales. It
seems kind of silly, like if you already have all that you probably can easily
raise money, so it often becomes a situation where the biggest reason to go on
the show is just the publicity from it.

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samfisher83
I think a lot of the time the publicity helps a lot. I think the sharks can
help sometimes. Like things with fashion and home good I think Lori and
Daymond help get them into stores.

However probably the biggest shark tank success story: Ring. Ring didn't get a
deal, but it is probably worth more then every other sharktank company
combined.

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fapjacks
This is it right here. If you watch enough of the show, you'll eventually
discover that most of the savvy entrepreneurs are actually on the show
pitching to the sharks for the publicity. The sharks know this is a problem,
and this is why some of the most watchable scenes are when an entrepreneur
gets an offer that matches his ridiculous original ask, but then rejects it.
This basically proves they had no intention of actually going in for a deal,
and most of the sharks (especially Mark Cuban) fly off the handle over it.
Totally fun to watch.

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sethbannon
"Timing, perseverance, and ten years of trying will eventually make you look
like an overnight success.” - Biz Stone

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propter_hoc
Different strokes for different folks, I guess. I run an asset-management
fintech company and a lot of our clients (particularly institutional
investors) are looking for a strong track record. For them, seeing we've been
around for a few years adds credibility and confidence in management.

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charlesdm
Mind sharing the name? I'm curious :)

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propter_hoc
Since you ask :) [https://copower.me/en/](https://copower.me/en/)

Green infrastructure investments; lowish risk fixed income; licensed dealer in
Canada.

We've also actively sought strategic investments from financial institutions
(Royal Bank of Canada, a couple others) rather than raising from tech VCs.
We've heard from a few clients that our brand-name shareholders made a
difference in deciding whether or not to invest with us.

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charlesdm
Looks great! So you're selling (up to) 5% coupon clean energy bonds? How is
that working out, are you getting a lot of interest from people?

I haven't done too bad investing and have a few ideas myself for a fintech
business (there are some opportunities relating to tax deductible pension
investments in my home market) yet wonder whether, say, a 5% yield is
sufficient for the average person to even bother taking a risk.

Second, if you don't mind, how's profitability? I assume it does need massive
scale for the math to work out? How is sourcing users / are advertising fees
working out, in terms of cost?

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propter_hoc
Happy to share some learnings - will reach out to the email in your profile.
Don't want to derail the thread :)

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kornish
Hey, not to butt in, but would it be possible to get in on the email
discussion? Very curious about all of the above questions as well. No worries
if not :)

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propter_hoc
Will do. Happy to do a Show HN at some point if there's interest.

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leesalminen
I'd read a show HN thread.

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gumby
Hold your horses! Origin stories aren't true??

A company's origin story is simply a "get to know you" story same as at a
cocktail party. Everything gets fudged because it's just a marketing
statement.

eBay wasn't really started due to Omidyar's girlfriend's desire to sell her
Pez dispenser collection, but that story explains the use case very simply and
personalizes what (at the time) was a peer-to-peer, or C2C, model.

Tesla wasn't actually started by Musk but by saying so on their web site it
drives home that the original founders are long gone and that Musk wants to be
seen as the singular genius.

GE no longer says anything about Edison since saying so wouldn't add to its
credibility.

A company age can be a first clue to whether they know what they are doing or
not. But only a first clue.

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zebraflask
It makes perfect sense that they would want to show some kind of saleable
momentum. Isn't the rule of thumb that investors want out and want their money
back within a certain number of years, and they're not going to lend money to
companies they think will take too long to show returns? (I use the term
"lend" loosely, btw, since many of the investment term sheets carry terms that
make the investment closer to a loan than a string-free donation of funds.)

I'm sure the counterpoint is that that's a short-sighted view of industries
that have long lead times to even develop a working product (or service, what
have you), but it doesn't seem all that surprising.

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Jedd
Not peculiar to SV.

I lived in London UK from 2008 through 2013, and worked at two self-described
start-ups.

One had been operating since 2006 (so ~5 years when I was with them), and the
other had been a struggling (sans profit) business for just over 15 years. The
MD of the latter would occasionally try to tidy up the truth by saying things
like 'we're starting up a new exciting branch of the business', but mostly
just used the s-word outright at recruitment fairs and in job ads.

I'm not entirely sure the practice worked in anyone's favour.

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btrautsc
I thought this article was going to be about Slack and it wasn't even
mentioned.

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ktamura
This is everything that's wrong about Silicon Valley: we perpetuate the false
virtue of overnight success, a flash of brilliance and youthful vision when,
in reality, it comes down to years of slogging along, many nights of crying
dry tears and adapting to the changing environment continuously.

It's sad because every operator I know knows this yet succumbs to the myth-
making "hack" because that's how you tell a "good story" that attracts much
needed attention among media and the investment community. Traction, hockey
stick curve, growth and all that jazz.

And to be fair, it's not entirely VCs's fault either. They have to deliver on
their investment promises within a certain timeline. What's really terrible is
that there's not enough discussion about this in the VC-backed
entrepreneurship community to accept that this is the "game" that everyone has
to play.

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frozenport
I disagree. Overnight success means good market traction, which eliminates one
of the biggest questions in a startups lifetime.

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ryanwaggoner
"Overnight success" is virtually always a bullshit lie.

And in the very few cases where it's not, it's worthless as an example and
incredibly dangerous to chase.

Put your head down, do the work, and enjoy the "overnight success" stories in
a decade, if ever.

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lappa
no subscription mirror: [http://www.cetusnews.com/life/Forever-Young--Tech-
Startups--...](http://www.cetusnews.com/life/Forever-Young--Tech-Startups--
Like-Hollywood-Celebrities--Fudge-Their-Age.S1y_wsKBsDZ.html)

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hoodoof
Fudge your age or fudge your company age? The headline is misleading.

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0x8BADF00D
Company age.

Arguably, you're committing no wrongdoing by changing the date your startup is
founded. After all, the date itself is rather ambiguous. Is it the first time
you get a user? Push a line of code? Etc.

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KGIII
FWIW, if I learn of any attempt to mislead, I'm out. An example would be that
I'd invest in someone with a storied past, unless they tried to hide it.

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lallysingh
Are the same companies also discriminating new hires by age? Is that more or
less consistent with lying about their own age?

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hn_throwaway_99
Are there any non-paywalled options available? Web link no longer works for
WSJ.

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revicon
Just use the magic WSJ paywall skipping bookmarklet...

    
    
      javascript:window.location.href='https://m.facebook.com/l.php?u='+encodeURIComponent(window.location.href);

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imglorp
Well that's nifty. Kind of a shame that referrer matters to them.

