Are softbank actually the biggest idiots in VC? It almost seems like everything they invest in is a handshake deal built on "just trust me bro" numbers.
> “Oh, man, the number of times I’ve been asked why my company isn’t growing as fast as X and then found out X was a fraud all along.”<p>This, in sports, finance, startups - everywhere. Dirty players skew the dynamics of any system leading to worse outcomes for those that choose to remain honest.<p>We need the supposed ‘smartest guys in the room’ to be less dumb and do due diligence and we need strong consequences for founders that misstate their company’s position.
Reddit famously started with a lot of fake users. I think the founders mentioned it in an interview. Even the Swedish guy from the show Succession was inflating his numbers. And those attributed clicks from Facebook (especially fb) and Google, better not to look too close.
I interviewed there a couple years back and a lot of things seemed really fishy.
They did not give answers to a lot of my questions.
So my spidey sense was right!
Everyone on and around social media wants new and better forms of social media.<p>I think the average person thinks social media is the drizzling shits but if they have to use it, they'll just stick to the large platforms.
> Two years ago, a messaging app startup called IRL reached a $1.2 billion valuation<p>> Earlier this year, a former employee alleged that IRL—the name stands for “in real life”— had fired him after he voiced concerns that many users were bots<p>It's hilarious that "In Real Life" was 95% bots.