@masek@infosec.exchange There may be investors that you lure by this type of behavior. I have seen this pattern in the startup ecosystem in a form of "pretend you're a unicorn until enough people think you're a unicorn and give you the valuation of a unicorn". The reason it works is that in many cases, there are no solid facts in an emergent business domain where startups operate, so people come up with all kinds of proxy features they believe will reduce their risk of being wrong. "Investing in the team", "total addressable market", "experience as a founder" down to the dresscode and "techbro" culture are all cargo cult proxy features of successful past startups. Some of them are necessary but not sufficient. Some are pure "vibe", especially in early tech startups. And survivorship bias does the rest and you have "successful" startup investors on linkedin bragging about their "secret sauce".