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I met Zach when he first started uBiome and moved to Chile. He was pationate about what he was building, and about the opportunity and impact it could have on

I met Zach when he first started uBiome and moved to Chile. He was pationate about what he was building, and about the opportunity and impact it could have on the world. This was 2011, so he was in the very early stages. If I recall correctly, he was calling uBiome the 23&Me of your gut biome instead of DNA. He was absolutely the last person I would expect to be caught up in something like this, and when the news first broke a few years ago, I reached out as an act of support, not looking to find out what happened, or anything, just thinking to myself....how did this happen, this isn't the Zach I know, maybe he needs someone to talk to. The lesson in this I think isn't to just pile on about how SV is full of frauds, and pile on with a bunch of hate, but rather to understand that there is a slippery slope, and people get caught on the wrong side of it. Make sure that doesn't happen to you. It further strikes close to home because I'm the founder of a sleep-tech company (https://soundmind.co https://soundmind.co), an industry full of snake-oil and BS. We're extremely conscious of this view of the industry, and call it out where we can. I've also seen many start-up pitches where the numbers thrown around are absolute BS, companies that I know aren't doing well, and the founders yell about the million dollar deals they have. It's the one thing I hate about this industry, but the gong continues to bang on about growth, growth, growth and the numbers you need to hit. Many, many founders take the easy way out, but, to quote Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle Is The Way. Any suggestions on how we fight this general rah-rah-BS attitude in the industry?

colechristensen 6y ago
You fight the BS by being able to see it, and see it early. Whenever there is opportunity, there will be fraud, particularly when you’re selling people hole in some form.
nitrogen 6y ago
Any suggestions on how we fight this general rah-rah-BS attitude in the industry? Maybe flipping the criteria used for evaluating investments. Instead of having founders give pitches and get evaluated on their confidence and charisma (and made-up numbers), find the most unassuming, drab, dull, but brilliant geniuses and convince them to take a lot of money in exchange for building what they would build anyway? Less Jobs, more Woz.
- wruza 6y ago
  Makers are not interested in speaking with investors, because latter usually understand the shit that has to be actually done even less than their current CEO.
TrackerFF 6y ago
Easy money corrupts people? When there's A LOT of cash flowing around, you're bound to get some fortune seekers here and there. And it is in the nature of SV to invest early on in companies and industry which might be worth billions 5-10-15 years down the road, even if the concepts are far fetched. Tbh, I think some investors are more than willing to suspend their disbelief, whether it is the tech itself, or the initial business models. If enough people hop on the band-wagon, and you're the early bird out - you could still make money on something wildly unfeasible idea. In any case, that kind of culture and environment will surely attract certain people. Or transform people.
tmpz22 6y ago
> Any suggestions on how we fight this general rah-rah-BS attitude in the industry? We start actually punishing white collar crime. Kids are growing up learning there are no downsides to white collar crime - whether you're Elizabeth Holmes or Jordan Belfort, even if you get caught red handed stealing BILLIONS nothing happens.
JohnJamesRambo 6y ago
I'd find your comment more compelling if it didn't include a non sequitur ad for your company.
- nmfisher 6y ago
  Exactly! OP could barely disguise the company shilling, I'm hardly going to trust his opinion on whether or not another startup CEO was a fraud or not.
salamanderman 6y ago
I was a friend of a friend of Jessica, and your impression of Zach is the same as I had of Jessica. I am shocked. I wasn't close enough to feel like it made sense to reach out.
karlicoss 6y ago
If you won't mind a bit of unsolicited advice since you seem like a person who cares and might value it. As someone who's interested in quantified self, etc. -- this kind of landing page is exactly what makes me think "bullshit" (and yes, in particular for Soundmind, I've clicked on it few months ago and left quickly). This is a kind of thing I hate about QS startups, I'll elaborate: Literally the first thing it does is asking me for my email (seriously, who subscribes the first moment they get on the website?). Shiny, takes ages to scroll with useless background images and little actual information. I'd much more trust a simple single-page site which gets straight to the point -- maybe then you can convince me to subscribe.
- FounderBurr 6y ago
  The point with these sites is to obscure the point.
- pedalpete 6y ago
  I'm actually surprised as well at how many people sign up, but we're still in development, so what would you have me do? We're not gathering the emails so we can spam people, we're figuring out where we can reach potential customers, who these people are, and will be sending them question aires to fit them into our trials, and later on the waistlist. We took a page right out of superhuman, and as far as getting people interested, it's working well enough. Btw, we're not a QS startup, we're a sleep tech. When we've got product and people using it, we'll update the website, and perhaps it will be more to your taste then. But at the moment, 5% of people who visit the site are signing up, so apparently we are striking the right nerve with some people.

colechristensen 6y ago

You fight the BS by being able to see it, and see it early. Whenever there is opportunity, there will be fraud, particularly when you’re selling people hole in some form.

nitrogen 6y ago

Any suggestions on how we fight this general rah-rah-BS attitude in the industry? Maybe flipping the criteria used for evaluating investments. Instead of having founders give pitches and get evaluated on their confidence and charisma (and made-up numbers), find the most unassuming, drab, dull, but brilliant geniuses and convince them to take a lot of money in exchange for building what they would build anyway? Less Jobs, more Woz.

wruza 6y ago
Makers are not interested in speaking with investors, because latter usually understand the shit that has to be actually done even less than their current CEO.

TrackerFF 6y ago

Easy money corrupts people? When there's A LOT of cash flowing around, you're bound to get some fortune seekers here and there. And it is in the nature of SV to invest early on in companies and industry which might be worth billions 5-10-15 years down the road, even if the concepts are far fetched. Tbh, I think some investors are more than willing to suspend their disbelief, whether it is the tech itself, or the initial business models. If enough people hop on the band-wagon, and you're the early bird out - you could still make money on something wildly unfeasible idea. In any case, that kind of culture and environment will surely attract certain people. Or transform people.

tmpz22 6y ago

> Any suggestions on how we fight this general rah-rah-BS attitude in the industry? We start actually punishing white collar crime. Kids are growing up learning there are no downsides to white collar crime - whether you're Elizabeth Holmes or Jordan Belfort, even if you get caught red handed stealing BILLIONS nothing happens.

JohnJamesRambo 6y ago

I'd find your comment more compelling if it didn't include a non sequitur ad for your company.

nmfisher 6y ago
Exactly! OP could barely disguise the company shilling, I'm hardly going to trust his opinion on whether or not another startup CEO was a fraud or not.

salamanderman 6y ago

I was a friend of a friend of Jessica, and your impression of Zach is the same as I had of Jessica. I am shocked. I wasn't close enough to feel like it made sense to reach out.

karlicoss 6y ago

If you won't mind a bit of unsolicited advice since you seem like a person who cares and might value it. As someone who's interested in quantified self, etc. -- this kind of landing page is exactly what makes me think "bullshit" (and yes, in particular for Soundmind, I've clicked on it few months ago and left quickly). This is a kind of thing I hate about QS startups, I'll elaborate: Literally the first thing it does is asking me for my email (seriously, who subscribes the first moment they get on the website?). Shiny, takes ages to scroll with useless background images and little actual information. I'd much more trust a simple single-page site which gets straight to the point -- maybe then you can convince me to subscribe.

FounderBurr 6y ago
The point with these sites is to obscure the point.
pedalpete 6y ago
I'm actually surprised as well at how many people sign up, but we're still in development, so what would you have me do? We're not gathering the emails so we can spam people, we're figuring out where we can reach potential customers, who these people are, and will be sending them question aires to fit them into our trials, and later on the waistlist. We took a page right out of superhuman, and as far as getting people interested, it's working well enough. Btw, we're not a QS startup, we're a sleep tech. When we've got product and people using it, we'll update the website, and perhaps it will be more to your taste then. But at the moment, 5% of people who visit the site are signing up, so apparently we are striking the right nerve with some people.