Ask HN: Have any of you left a startup that was selling snake oil?

Hi all,

I am in an interesting situation. I thought I'd ask you all to see how you've handled similar situations.

A few months ago, I joined an 'AI' start-up. Most of my experience lined up well with the company vision, and I thought 'why not?'. They gave me what I was looking for in terms of salary and have funding to run for the next year.

The company is really just a consulting firm that deploys custom solutions for clients: this is totally fine by me, because it's really interesting and fun. But, the CEO is going to investors pitching the fact that we've built/are building some deep learning engine that can be applied to all problems. Investors are starting to do due-diligence on us, and I've repeatedly told him that there is no 'engine'; we're a consulting company. All problems we face are unique, and we provide a solution. There's no magic ML algorithm that works for all problems. This logic falls on deaf ears.

I feel that it's best to move on from here eventually - I may give it another few months to see what happens.

Any of you have any interesting takes/similar stories? I'd be curious to hear how you handled it.

It doesn't sound like snake oil. It does seem like you are actually building AI solutions, and guess what, you said it yourself:

"this is totally fine by me, because it's really interesting and fun"

The founder needs to do what he has to fund the dream while it is still amorphous. Once you've done enough consulting, hopefully you will be able to re-use some of what you've done over time, and start focusing on a single problem area and building that 'engine' - that is, if you stick around long enough for it to be realized (and dont run out of money first)

> The founder needs to do what he has to fund the dream while it is still amorphous.

Meaning, lie about the product? Maybe this is normal; I'm not part of that world, so I wouldn't know. But hiding it behind fuzzy phrasing seems like doubling down on dishonesty.

Agreed. If a founder is willing to be dishonest to investors, he/she are also likely to be dishonest to customers and employees. There’s a fine line between marketing fluff, which is ugly but acceptable, and outright lies, but if you feel uncomfortable, it’s likely a problem.

I think it is CEO's job to keep investors hope high. A engine doesn't work like magic anyway, you are always going to customize it. Thinking TensorFlow as a engine. I don't see anything wrong with that. Anything can be boring, and CEO has to make it exciting. I have this experience with my recent project that I am in charge of, the team facing a lot of doubts and pushes because I didn't draw the picture sexy enough for management. CEO takes on the task of making sure investors are happy to keep the company going and making sure team members are happy as well. What you see is 80% of the value of your company, and the CEO sees 120%, that's the difference and it is the right thing to do.