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This one is somewhat straightforward, though: Can I describe to my mom, in one sentence, what it is they do? What proportion of the company is people who do r

This one is somewhat straightforward, though: Can I describe to my mom, in one sentence, what it is they do? What proportion of the company is people who do real, useful shit as opposed to "leadership" or other management? It's tiny, right? Are they making something that can be genuinely useful or enjoyable for people? Are they funded by a secretive billionaire or have you heard of their investors? There are others, but this seems a good start. One or two no answers might not disqualify a company but no to all four would leave me deeply suspicious.

akkartik 16y ago
Yes those questions are a great start. But it takes some expertise to interpret the answers. If you're new to the space all investors are new to you. You get random hangers-on claiming to have invested in skype. 'useful for people' is also hard to check. A company's product may be useful to a niche you have no experience with. 'Describe to my mom' seems to bias people towards consumer startups - it's hard to explain companies that occupy a niche in a specialized eco-system. But many of those are very valuable. In the end it's an arms race. Crap companies are out there improving their posturing everyday. Bullshit coevolves with bullshit detectors. Which is why this should be the perennial question to discuss every few months. "Ask HN: any crap companies out there?" "Ask HN: anybody fed you a new line of bullshit?" "Ask HN: new questions to ask startups?" (I don't attribute malice to 'crap companies'. A company is crap if it mistakes the map for the territory, if it focuses on its 'positioning' without changing its product. Other such levels of incompetence.)