3 ms·

Any practical way for a startup to get investment from these grifty slush funds that don’t involve scary amounts of loss of control/independence?

VladVladikoff 7mo ago
Step 1) Buy domain: militarytech.ai Step 2) Have an LLM make a shitty website about your advanced military AI tech. Step 3) ???? Step 4) Profit!
esseph 7mo ago
Once you get money from people like that, you never get "out".
genthree 7mo ago
1) Get a couple million dollars you’re willing to gamble. 2) Spend a few tens of K creating some amount of a front of having a company. 3) Buy a dinner or two with the right people in the admin, ideally Trump himself (you can literally do this). Talk like an AM radio host or MAGA-aligned right wing podcaster any time political topics come up (that part’s extremely easy, but you do need to do it) 4) Work out some way to help someone at that dinner line their pockets with any public money they send your way. This will mean only keeping part of what you get, but you’re still gonna beat your investment handily. Remaining cash is for incidentals and having to repeat the dinner thing (not sure it’s enough for 2x with Trump himself, but should get you a few with other groups of admin members) Don’t forget to buy and have tailored a Hickey Freeman suit (modern, post-production-shift overseas is fine, no need to track down the good vintage Rochester-made stuff), either pinchingly-tightly-tailored like it’s 2009 (Hegseth) if you’re fairly trim, or ill-fitting (leaning too large in every way) otherwise. Brooks Brothers might be an OK option too, in the latter case. Do not buy a dinner jacket, they just wear business suits everywhere. Red tie is safe. Don’t forget some tasteless dumbshit lapel pin, maybe an AR-15 (don’t go for a US flag unless you’re an elected official) or something outright Trump-branded (if you can get one with his face on it, do that for sure)
- croisillon 7mo ago
  don't forget the ill-sized Florsheim shoes
- yread 7mo ago
  I love this. It sounds like you've done it multiple times already

VladVladikoff 7mo ago

Step 1) Buy domain: militarytech.ai Step 2) Have an LLM make a shitty website about your advanced military AI tech. Step 3) ???? Step 4) Profit!

esseph 7mo ago

Once you get money from people like that, you never get "out".

genthree 7mo ago

1) Get a couple million dollars you’re willing to gamble. 2) Spend a few tens of K creating some amount of a front of having a company. 3) Buy a dinner or two with the right people in the admin, ideally Trump himself (you can literally do this). Talk like an AM radio host or MAGA-aligned right wing podcaster any time political topics come up (that part’s extremely easy, but you do need to do it) 4) Work out some way to help someone at that dinner line their pockets with any public money they send your way. This will mean only keeping part of what you get, but you’re still gonna beat your investment handily. Remaining cash is for incidentals and having to repeat the dinner thing (not sure it’s enough for 2x with Trump himself, but should get you a few with other groups of admin members) Don’t forget to buy and have tailored a Hickey Freeman suit (modern, post-production-shift overseas is fine, no need to track down the good vintage Rochester-made stuff), either pinchingly-tightly-tailored like it’s 2009 (Hegseth) if you’re fairly trim, or ill-fitting (leaning too large in every way) otherwise. Brooks Brothers might be an OK option too, in the latter case. Do not buy a dinner jacket, they just wear business suits everywhere. Red tie is safe. Don’t forget some tasteless dumbshit lapel pin, maybe an AR-15 (don’t go for a US flag unless you’re an elected official) or something outright Trump-branded (if you can get one with his face on it, do that for sure)

croisillon 7mo ago
don't forget the ill-sized Florsheim shoes
yread 7mo ago
I love this. It sounds like you've done it multiple times already