[maxbrown]

Many of the start-up lessons here are those preached by Eric Reis, Steve Blank, and others. I don't think this is a broad treatise on how food start-ups won't work.

Also:

..."things no responsible person would ever not know before even considering raising money." ...

...classic marketing grad trying to do startup things...

...over-exuberant and irresponsible entrepreneurs...

not sure how you don't see this as ad hominem critical.

[NhanH]

Ad hominem is an attack that discredit the argument by trying to discredit the person writing the message (ie. "You didn't success why should I listen to you"), mostly by attacking the credentials of the person.

An attack on BOTH the writer and the argument, as unnecessary critical or negative as it could be, is not an ad hominem attack, and by no mean make the criticism an invalid one. Especially if the criticism of the writer comes because of the writing (ie. "from what you've done, it seems like you're too inexperienced and naive etc...")

(I'm sorry that this is really off topic ...)

[lazzlazzlazz]

This is pretty much the opposite of an `ad hominem` attack.