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> Reporters literally can't believe it when founders making piles of money say that they started their companies to make the world better. The situation seems m
by Alex3917 6y ago
> Reporters literally can't believe it when founders making piles of money say that they started their companies to make the world better. The situation seems made for mockery.
To be fair a lot of startup origin stories are so ridiculously fake that they seem like they could have only been created as a mockery of earnestness. Like the founders know they're lying, they know everyone else knows they're lying, and they're just doing it anyway as a weird flex or whatever.
Say what you will about Bezos, but at least he was honest that he just put every CPG product into a spreadsheet and discovered that books had by far the best unit economics and flywheel potential, rather than making up some bullshit backstory story about childhood literacy or whatever.
- dcx 6y agoI went looking for the source of this anecdote, I believe this is it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pgzi_jUBu9U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pgzi_jUBu9U
- galgalesh 6y agoI watch that video and I see an internet and logistics nerd who proudly explains he found the best way to build a company around it. Although it's clear that profitability is important to him, the video also shows he's deeply passionate about building this "virtual store". This gives him the incredible drive the article was talking about.
- freshhawk 6y agoI don't see how you expect to sell that particular story to a group of people who have likely sat in the meetings where those BS stories were crafted. And most of whom have had more than one "oh damn, i thought we were ironically riffing but now I can't tell if they are very funny and very dry or if this person is very new and drank the kool aid and is completely earnest" moments.