[wting]

> If you ask a founder how her startup is going, the answer is almost always some version of “Great!”

This is not founder-specific but a fairly typical American greeting. "How's it going?" "Pretty good, you?" "Not too bad, how 'bout the weather / sports team?"

By comparison, the next time someone initiates the standard greeting try responding with something out of the ordinary. "I'm having a difficult time with foo" or "My wife and I just did this". Breaking the pattern will result in a lot more meaningful conversations.

[nlh]

I think there's two different things going on here. What you talk about is very much real -- the standard "how's it going?" or "how are you?" American question/response ("Good! You?"). Answering that sort of question in the way you suggest is a fairly non-American thing.

But I think there is also a more specific founder/startup conversation that Sam refers to -- that's more like this:

Q: "Hey, how are you?"

A: "Good! You?"

Q: "I'm good. So how are things with the company? How are you guys doing?"

That's where the typical "Oh we're killing it!" is coming in and where it might be nice for some to be a bit more honest. "We're trying. It's a struggle." You can also learn a lot about the person you're talking to by seeing how they respond to this. The good ones are the ones who respond with empathy and who want to listen.

[RRiccio]

The enthusiastic "GREAT!" responses were something I had to adapt to while in the US. In LatAm/Europe, even when great things have happened, the standard answer is "The company is ok, how about yours?" -- boasting about your successes isn't socially accepted.