Analyzing data from Silicon Valley ventures and founders prosecuted for fraud
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Analyzing data from Silicon Valley ventures and founders prosecuted for fraud
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Re: Analyzing data from Silicon Valley ventures and founders prosecuted for fraud
#2[deleted]
Re: Analyzing data from Silicon Valley ventures and founders prosecuted for fraud
#3A lot of 'numbers' startups cite are basically fake I think. Like if someone says we have this many users as a statement to TechCrunch you have no idea what they are actually calculating
But there is a clear line that gets crossed if you start actually making a database of millions of synthetic users and that's what happened with 'Frank' that sold to JP Morgan and eventually the founder was prosecuted
Re: Analyzing data from Silicon Valley ventures and founders prosecuted for fraud
#4A lot of 'numbers' startups cite are basically fake I think. Like if someone says we have this many users as a statement to TechCrunch you have no idea what they are actually calculating But there is a clear line that gets crossed if you start actually making a database of millions of synthetic users and that's what happened with 'Frank' that sold to JP Morgan and eventually the founder was prosecuted
> Like if someone says we have this many users as a statement you have no idea what they are actually calculating
I think that's BS. User metrics are usually very explicitly defined (e.g. monthly or daily active users have always been clearly defined wherever I've worked, even if just for the sole reason that people collecting those numbers need to know what to count). User quality is definitely a gray area and estimating bot percentage has become increasingly difficult, but user metrics are not some ill-defined, fuzzy math notion.
Re: Analyzing data from Silicon Valley ventures and founders prosecuted for fraud
#5Business as usual for the west.
Talk about every other countries ethics while being the number one thief through narrative capture
Re: Analyzing data from Silicon Valley ventures and founders prosecuted for fraud
#6The more you force unrealistic expectations of exponential growth, the more founders engage in 'façading.' This feels a lot like multi-level marketing and a game of hot potato—keeping the early investors' returns safe by bringing in new capital.
The paper's concept of 'deep façading' follows the same pattern. When a product fails to generate sustainable value or revenue in the market, founders create fake metrics to protect the book returns of early investors and attract the next round of funding. Instead of being driven by real customer value, the company's valuation is inflated by the next investor's money—creating a multi-level pyramid.
The successful hot potato is WeWork, handed off to SoftBank and public market retail investors. The failed one is Theranos.
Re: Analyzing data from Silicon Valley ventures and founders prosecuted for fraud
#7A lot of 'numbers' startups cite are basically fake I think. Like if someone says we have this many users as a statement to TechCrunch you have no idea what they are actually calculating But there is a clear line that gets crossed if you start actually making a database of millions of synthetic users and that's what happened with 'Frank' that sold to JP Morgan and eventually the founder was prosecuted
>"A lot of 'numbers' startups cite are basically fake I think."
I like Ed Zitron's reporting on the AI industry (though I disagree with him on AI's potential capabilities).
I wonder how much of AI-related revenue are because of accounting fiction rather than actual cash.
Either way, I think the stock market is as disconnected as it has ever been with actually ground reality of the US economy and industry.
Re: Analyzing data from Silicon Valley ventures and founders prosecuted for fraud
#8A lot of 'numbers' startups cite are basically fake I think. Like if someone says we have this many users as a statement to TechCrunch you have no idea what they are actually calculating But there is a clear line that gets crossed if you start actually making a database of millions of synthetic users and that's what happened with 'Frank' that sold to JP Morgan and eventually the founder was prosecuted
In the current environment I doubt Elizabeth Holmes would go to prison. She would be saying the machine would work by early next year. After all a drop of blood is just a smaller quantity. Making the machine work is just an engineering problem.
If she were really clever she would recruit a social media army of all the weird conspiracy theorists who think "medbeds" are real.
Of course now we know that a drop of capillary blood containing interstitial fluid and a random mix of venous and arterial blood is unsuitable for most blood tests. At least you will have googled that if you're an Elon stan preparing to tell me how they're not comparable.
Re: Analyzing data from Silicon Valley ventures and founders prosecuted for fraud
#9A lot of 'numbers' startups cite are basically fake I think. Like if someone says we have this many users as a statement to TechCrunch you have no idea what they are actually calculating But there is a clear line that gets crossed if you start actually making a database of millions of synthetic users and that's what happened with 'Frank' that sold to JP Morgan and eventually the founder was prosecuted
> Like if someone says we have this many users as a statement you have no idea what they are actually calculating I think that's BS. User metrics are usually very explicitly defined (e.g. monthly or daily active users have always been clearly defined wherever I've worked, even if just for the sole reason that people collecting those numbers need to know what to count). User quality is definitely a gray area and estim…
Seems like your “increasingly difficult” part is kinda what they meant.
Re: Analyzing data from Silicon Valley ventures and founders prosecuted for fraud
#10I'm surprised there was no mention of Elizabeth Holmes. Whenever there is mention of criminal deception of any sort, she's like the poster child for it in my eyes. And I remember her accomplice who instead of admitting he was on the wrong side, kept blaming the journalist who tried to uncover the fraud, instead. He said (something along the lines of) "He (the journalist) kept coming at her.." as if she would've been able to magically solve the problem if she had enough time.
That was all I needed to know about what was wrong about valley culture.