Tangentially related to this article, a few growth number tricks I've seen from founders recently: -Flying all over the country speaking at conferences giving

Tangentially related to this article, a few growth number tricks I've seen from founders recently: -Flying all over the country speaking at conferences giving away tons of schwag while claiming zero dollars spent on advertising. "It's all organic growth!" -Hiring a PR firm to get you mentions on industry blogs while again claiming zero dollars spent on advertising. "We get 1000 new visitors to our website every day and we've never spent any money on advertising." -Un-launching their product when they don't see the growth numbers they want, "Right now we have about 50 users in a pre-launch focus group." AKA "Our first launch failed, so we are going to pretend it didn't happen." Followed by a second "launch" so that growth numbers look good "since launch".