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WooMe: TechCrunch40 Finalist, $20 Million In Funding – And One Huge Scam

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Re: WooMe: TechCrunch40 Finalist, $20 Million In Funding – And One Huge Scam

#111

Post by elliottcarlson »

minouye wrote: post #110
elliottcarlson wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the user is gullible enough - or at least that is the hopes of some of these fake accounts. It pays off even if you convert 10 people a day - and most likely that is a very easy target number to hit. Keep in mind this is all playing on human emotions; sex or the desire to be wanted being a huge one; and for some lonely souls out there, it makes them easier prey. My history with doing affiliate programs with that i…

I'm not judging you, but an activity where you view your "customers" as prey seems really depressing. I certainly couldn't sleep at night knowing I was taking advantage of people yearning for some happiness in their lives.

Oh, I never took part in these practices, sorry if I lead you to believe this. I did work as an affiliate for these type of sites, however it was via a blog that would review the sites. I will admit, I was deceptive in the fact that I never really used the sites - I was working an angle to make money, but I never tricked users in to thinking I was someone else, or lured them in to a situation where they were forced to register. My reviews simply talked about the features of the site, then provided a link with my affiliate code.

The actual luring tactics do seem predatory and that's why I worded it like that - simply because I have witnessed how others were going about things.

Re: WooMe: TechCrunch40 Finalist, $20 Million In Funding – And One Huge Scam

#112

Post by rayval »

metageek wrote: post #48
robinwauters wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got about 5 messages the first 2-3 minutes after signing up. A short while later, I had roughly 20 random women contacting me. Good thing I have screenshots, because they stopped coming as soon as WooMe noticed my post. I can only see what these supposedly real women are trying to tell or ask me until I pay up. That's all fine and dandy, but there's no point in pretending that real users were just all jumping on th…

You're doing this for work, right? Why not go ahead and pay the $25 and see what the messages say?

Because it could be one of those services that is hard to cancel without cancelling the credit card.

Re: WooMe: TechCrunch40 Finalist, $20 Million In Funding – And One Huge Scam

#113

Post by arethuza »

prodigal_erik wrote: post #90
jordanmessina wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who is to say the "legitimate" startup deserves the money in the first place? The way I see it, if you're legitimate you should be at break even, investment isn't to dig a company out of a hole but rather to accelerate growth and development. I remember the Twilio CEO saying on Mixergy that they needed investment because without it they wouldn't have been able to grow/build as fast. They didn't need it to stay alive,…

Nobody breaks even on day one, it takes time and resources to get there. Why shouldn't any of it come from investors? YC's premise is that there are good potential founders who don't even have enough capital to live on for the first few months.

"Nobody breaks even on day one"

When I co-founded a company we boostrapped by finding a contracting client who we managed to negotiate with so that they would pay us immediately in cash before the end of the month. So for the first few months we still managed to pay our salaries, make a profit and we had no overheads as we were working on the client site.

After we had some cash in the bank we got an office and purchased our own kit so we could work off site (the client wasn't bothered as long as the work got done). Eventually we got to the point where we decided to focus on product development and we got VC money and moved to only having product related revenue.

So yes, I think we did break even on day one.

Re: WooMe: TechCrunch40 Finalist, $20 Million In Funding – And One Huge Scam

#114

Post by dantheman »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #88
watchandwait wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regulations are only as ethical as the regulator -- just ask Bernie Madoff's victims how well that worked. Indeed, more regulation leads to a false sense of security, and certainly stifles innovation. Better to have the market, and market players like TechCrunch, sort out this type of low-level malfeasance.

But then you'd have to have a financial reward system in place that rewards ethical firms. I don't know how you would do that.

It's called refusing to do business with people who are ethically challenged.

Re: WooMe: TechCrunch40 Finalist, $20 Million In Funding – And One Huge Scam

#115

Post by whyleyc »

nikcub wrote: post #55
JacobAldridge wrote: post #3

TC / Crunchbase might want to change their WooMe's company profile on their pages as well, in light of this article. Kind of funny that the article calls it "bait-and-switch, from the horrible kind" while linking to an internal-ish overview that says "best of all it’s free". http://www.crunchbase.com/company/woome

150k+ records in Crunchbase so it is difficult to keep it up-to-date. The good news is that anybody can edit any record.

I just edited the company bio - how long do I have to wait to see the update ?

Re: WooMe: TechCrunch40 Finalist, $20 Million In Funding – And One Huge Scam

#116

Post by nikcub »

whyleyc wrote: post #115
nikcub wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

150k+ records in Crunchbase so it is difficult to keep it up-to-date. The good news is that anybody can edit any record.

I just edited the company bio - how long do I have to wait to see the update ?

The mods usually go through the moderation queue once a day. If you create an account, after a few edits are approved you get permission to insta-edit.
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