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by nogabebop23 2251 days ago
WHy wouldn't they push the narative "Look at this - now we'll make it smaller" vs. "it's awesome - trust us and wait"?

Even snake oil salesmen have a demo if they're good; these guys suck at being phonies.

3 comments

They had a few-hundred-pound cart-bound prototype called The Beast that was supposedly mind blowing to use, and that's what convinced a lot of engineers to drop everything and move to Florida to work on it. I agree pushing that technical narrative would have sounded much better.
I'm not a marketing person, but constantly alluding to something amazing without revealing details is a hack that stirs up a lot of curiosity and people discussing what it could be.

If you reveal the thing then that dies down (or worse knowledgeable people know that what you're dong isn't possible), but if you keep it secret while giving content-free little hints about it you can keep it going longer (and maybe raise more money by letting people in on the secret?).

I have a strong dislike for this kind of thing, but that doesn't mean it's not effective.

They got to series E funding and raised over a billion dollars. If they were phonies, they were phenomenal ones.
Tharanos raised almost a billion, and look how that ended up