Sifting through the BS

One thing I’ve learned from evaluating and conducting due diligence on hundreds of startups is that there’s a whole mess of BS out there.

At the most basic level, there’s a lot of startups, founders, executives, etc. using fancy adjectives to describe their products. This is similar to “greenwashing” with ESG which has largely been proven to be a false marketing campaign across investing.

“We analyze thousands of data sets using AI / ML”

“Our proprietary algorithm does….”

Of course, I’m not arguing that AI / ML is BS or companies do not have proprietary algorithms, but that more often companies are using these as a a way to provide a false moat or strength of their business when in reality they are doing what every other company has been doing.

There is and always will be an aspect of faking it until you make it in tech. I’m okay with that in many instances, but what especially bothers me if when these companies are targeting everyday consumers who do not know any better.

Often it leads to higher fees and worse outcomes for these consumers all justified by making something much more complex or confusing than it needs to be.