My friend (22M) is a rising star in the startup world. He raised a significant round of venture capital money and has gone viral several times for his tech.
He has also amassed a whole following of wannabe tech bros on LinkedIn and other spaces who admire him. The problem is him and his co-founder are both lying calling themselves Ivy League dropouts, when they actually graduated. They’re bragging about how they didn’t need college to succeed, comparing themselves to Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates, and influencing younger kids to drop out of school.
In reality, they built their startup on the back on our school’s generous resources. All of their early financial support and access to tech has come from our school’s startup incubator and tech labs. And they did graduate. I walked across the stage with them in May and watched them get their diplomas.
But now they’re online bragging about how they’re Ivy League dropouts because they took a semester off two years ago to focus on their startup. So I called them out on social media and said my friend is lying to his fans and promoting anti-education nonsense, when he actually built his whole startup off our college’s resources. That ignited a whole social media shit storm of people arguing on my friend’s page, and he’s since been saying I’m just jealous of him and that it is inconsequential whether he dropped out or not. AITA?
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My friend (22M) is a rising star in the startup world. He raised a significant round of venture capital money and has gone viral several times for his tech.
He has also amassed a whole following of wannabe tech bros on LinkedIn and other spaces who admire him. The problem is him and his co-founder are both lying calling themselves Ivy League dropouts, when they actually graduated. They’re bragging about how they didn’t need college to succeed, comparing themselves to Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates, and influencing younger kids to drop out of school.
In reality, they built their startup on the back on our school’s generous resources. All of their early financial support and access to tech has come from our school’s startup incubator and tech labs. And they did graduate. I walked across the stage with them in May and watched them get their diplomas.
But now they’re online bragging about how they’re Ivy League dropouts because they took a semester off two years ago to focus on their startup. So I called them out on social media and said my friend is lying to his fans and promoting anti-education nonsense, when he actually built his whole startup off our college’s resources. That ignited a whole social media shit storm of people arguing on my friend’s page, and he’s since been saying I’m just jealous of him and that it is inconsequential whether he dropped out or not. AITA?
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Contest mode is 1.5 hours long on this post.
NTA. I would dunk all over them. Especially if they are leading others to drop out.
NTA. And if they don’t stop, someone is going to sue them at some point for fraud.
NTA but they sure are for pushing lies.
Does it really make any difference whether they graduated or not as long as they succeeded with their business. You really sound petty and jealous of them since it doesn’t affect you in the least whether they graduated or not. YTA.
NTA – They’re just trying to capture that image of being an Ivy League dropout, like you said. Sooner or later, that truth will come out. I feel like perhaps you’re doing them a favor by getting it out now and not down the road. Also, this shit is so easily verifiable, why lie about it?
Why are you friends with a liar and a charlatan?
ESH. That’s a weird thing to lie about and yeah they shouldn’t have. Did you talk to them about it before you outed them online? I guess that’s kind of a shitty move regardless.
NTA
FWIW if someone is raising serious money on the back of a misleading personal narrative, and you can prove it, you should tell a journalist.
NTA
It might be inconsequential, but it is still a lie.
If I made up a story about how I wore a big blue cowboy hat to my wedding, it would be fair for someone to speak up and tell people I’m full of shit.
His lie is the same, but for some reason he clearly thinks it has some importance or he wouldn’t keep going on about it.
Honestly, if you graduated from an Ivy League school, flaunt it! Pretending to be a dropout just makes you look like a wannabe. Keep it real, my dude!
YTA, who cares if they’re lying about this? You want to damage their business and your friendship over it?
NTA
They lied. They deserve whatever happens.
I can’t believe we’re in a time where saying you dropped out of any ivy is considered more credible or cooler or has more cache than saying you’re a grad of an Ivy. Wild!
It’s one thing to lie but another to encourage people to also drop out, when they actually graduated. Way to f up other kids’ lives.
I would leak it to journals in the tech space and contact the VCs directly, so they know who they’re going into business with.
Unfortunately the hallmark of the privilege that usually gets you into an Ivy – denying the advantages you got to make it sound like you had to ‘struggle’ when there is no real struggle.
All you did was improve his engagement on social media. There will always be people who want to be rich and “famous” by any means. His audience does not care whether he is lying about his education as long as he shares how he became successful. I think you wanted some of the spotlight, so Yes, YATA.
Yes, and you are just jealous.
NTA.
Lying on a resume is illegal. Lying to your audience is misleading and immoral.
While he’s not doing anything illegal, he needs to be honest about what he’s doing.
NTA
Shoot, if you’re feeling extra petty, find the graduation video of that year and post it with a timestamp. If it didn’t matter whether he graduated or not, then he wouldn’t be spewing how he’s a dropout in the first place.
YTA. Not sure why you felt the need to get involved in something that has absolutely nothing to do with you. Does sound a bit like jealousy
NTA.
I mean…you didn’t really need to stick your nose in it; if they get even remotely in the range of early Zuckerberg or Gates, they’ll get caught out by people whose job it is to fact-check stuff. (Investor due diligence, press, etc.) If they didn’t get called out by someone else first.
That said, if it’s “inconsequential” then why did he lie about it in the first place? It’s because it’s not inconsequential, it contributes to essentially a brand mythology that he’s trying to get people to invest money in. Of course it’s consequential, and he knows it, otherwise he wouldn’t have done it.
And if he doesn’t wanna get called out for lying on the internet, he shouldn’t lie on the internet, especially while trying to drum up attention to become a tech megastar.
NTA Did they really expect to keep up this facade in a world where everything is recorded?
NTA. Calling out false claims that influence others is fair, especially when it misrepresents hard work and resources that were legitimately earned. He can’t spin it as jealousy when the truth affects people making life decisions based on his story.
Whether or not you’re the AH, don’t continue to call him a “friend.” I doubt he’ll ever use that word again to describe you.
Seems like a stupid thing to lie about…
NTA. But as someone who went to Stanford and is quite annoyed by startup/VC culture in Silicon Valley, I feel like it should be obvious, or at least made clear, that the “genius self-made dropout” is a marketing/PR tactic, not centrally about shitting on education or even really about whether he really did graduate or not, is “self made”, etc.
Ultimately, you’re not really combating an “anti-education” stance. You’re attacking a brand he’s trying to make for himself–one of an eccentric startup genius–whether that makes you an AH is up to you. But Silicon Valley is full of obnoxious assholes that think this about themselves and want to sell that image to all their other peers and funders. See: Zuckerberg, Sam Bankman-Fried, Gates (in his early years)
NTA folks lying isn’t cute
NTA.
Most success stories are always like this, fabricated and a far stretch from the truth. This in return gives people false hope or assumptions.
Yeah people need to learn social media is mostly a lie anyway. But to let a bunch of fans think college can’t help even when it did is misinformation and would lead a lot of people to try to “follow in the footsteps.” NTA
Question: Does your school allow people to walk in the ceremony even if they don’t graduate or do they have to meet the requirements of actually graduating with a degree to be allowed to walk?
NTA. Is it cluely?
NTA, fry the larpers
NTA. This lie is not inconsequential, it’s part of the global move to anti-intellectualism that is causing huge damage right now. It is important to note that his success was based on university education and funding, in a year where university funding is being hugely slashed for shits and giggles. This asshole is part of a larger trend that is majorly hurting science and innovation in the US.
If it’s “inconsequential”, why is he lying about it? NTA.
nah, you ain’t the asshole. dude’s straight up lying to flex and influence people, and it’s not harmless, it’s misleading kids and undermining education. calling it out was fair, even if it blew up online. he’s just mad ‘cause the truth got in the way of his hype.
nah, you’re totally NTA. dude’s out here straight up lying and hyping himself up off a fake story, influencing people the wrong way. calling him out was the right move, even if it caused some internet chaos.
NTA but I’m surprised they haven’t deleted your comments and tried to spin the narrative…
NTA, it’s crazy how they’re so privileged that being a dropout looks better in their eyes than the fact that they (I’m assuming) put in the work and got degrees. Bill Gates and Zuckerberg are very much the minority, and it’s not wrong to remind your friend that he isn’t part of that minority. Why start off with a lie, if he’s already getting attention for his work, why would actually having the degree take away from his accomplishments? It’s disingenuous.
NTA. If it were actually inconsequential then he wouldn’t be talking about it all the time and it wouldn’t have kicked off a social media shit storm. Very clearly it matters both to him and to his fans.
Also your friend (former friend?) is shockingly lacking in common sense to lie about something that’s so easy to disprove. This kind of scandal is what social media thrives on these days and although they say there’s no such thing as bad publicity, I don’t think that’s true when it comes to a startup depending on VC funding. Scandals and lies have taken down other startups.
NTA. Lying is one thing. Actively promoting and influencing younger, impressionable minds into making the wrong life-altering decisions isn’t cool. Call them out on their BS.
NTA good for you.
NTA
Please ask him online how him lying about dropping out isn’t lying. Then ask him if his investors are cool with him lying.
>that it is inconsequential whether he dropped out or not
If it’s so inconsequential then why is he the one building his brand on the “fact” that he “dropped out”? NTA, liars deserve to be called out, especially when their lies are so easy to debunk.
When Obama was running for office in 2012, he used the phrase – if you have a business, you didn’t build that.
It was meant to indicate that business relies on public infrastructure as a platform for growth.
The quote was taken out of context and ran with as business owners like to see themselves as ‘self made’, iconoclasts that stand alone to build this miracle product.
Your ‘friend’ is leaning into this mythos and doesn’t like truth getting in the way. Sadly, he will probably do well with this.
So you say this person as many startup founders is your garden variety of a con artist?
NTA
NTA, what a bizarre lie. It would have come out publicly at some point.
YTA. Why are you hating on him? You’re obviously jealous. Aren’t you interested in your own life enough ? Probably not. Don’t worry about what other people are doing. Nobody made you a cop. Just worry about you. The truth eventually comes out. And stop calling yourself their friend. You aren’t a friend and they aren’t yours.
NEOB,
Você apenas é uma pessoa lucida, que quer garantir que as pessoas não sejam enganadas e continuem estudando.
Out them before they con people out of a lot of money and time.
Is this…. Cluely?
Why are you going out of your way? Sounds like you drank some hateraid
NTA
ESH. It’s definitely a weird thing to lie about, but it’s also a little weird you called him out on social media instead of talking to him about it. Clout chasing isn’t new. I don’t think you are actually friends or you would have called him out to his face.
I vote NTA .
But I would ask if Jealousy prompted your action .
NTA. He sounds like the next Rothenberg Ventures. Not the drop out part but the lying for sure. Lol
Too many people are indoors with little to do but troll. YTA.
They’ll crash and burn on their own, but if you want to help the process along, feel free