[solresol]

Isn't there a bigger Ponzi scheme in tech? The one where you sell a product at a screaming loss, double your revenue each year (without ever showing a profit), and then each year raise capital at double the previous year's valuation to fund the ever-growing loss-making sales. It's just the suckers in that scheme are the investors...

[justnotworthit]

This is what I thought the article would be about: You get to be startup-rich not by convincing people to buy your product, but by convincing investors that people will buy your product. That's a much different sell, and you can ride it multiple times for a long time, getting rich without ever making a sustainable product. Your product, essentially, was selling hope (later turned to regret) to investors.

[thinkingemote]

Investors don't have regret when that happens, they count on it. They spread their bets across many small startups. It only needs one investment to succeed and the other dozen or so can fail. Most startups will and are expected to fail.

It's part of the game that you need to convince investors that you still have a chance in being the unicorn.