I think there is some slant against "shameless sales tactics" here because many HN'ers aren't in a position to recognize exactly how valuable sales is. There ar

I think there is some slant against "shameless sales tactics" here because many HN'ers aren't in a position to recognize exactly how valuable sales is. There are some well known and well loved "tech companies" that grow to be 90% sales and marketing and 10% engineering after they put their funding to use. And for those here that arent familiar, quite often VC money is meant for growth via sales and marketing, not via hiring more engineers. What's interesting is that if you do think what you are providing is actually useful or meaningful, then there is nothing shameless about promoting it directly to those that might get use from it. And you promote it to people where they are: in their inbox, DMs, LinkedIn, etc. (We actually get tremendous results by supplementing cold email with phone simply because people are so surprised that we went through the trouble to call. But that's a discussion for another time.) All that is to say that reaching out to people that might benefit from what you offer isnt sleazy in the slightest and is a practice as old as time itself. They will let you know if they arent interested, usually by ignoring you. Doesnt mean you should stop or feel bad about it. Best of luck to you.