Recently left a startup in San Francisco and I was browsing their Linkedin page the other day and something struck me as odd... - Besides the founders (CEO + CTO), and another engineer I worked with. Our team only had 5 people... There were several profiles on Linkedin that seemed suspicious to me. In particular, there were software engineers and sales reps that all had the same start dates (2016) and claim to be presently working there AND haven't updated their profile since.... I have never seen these people around the office, nor seen them on slack.
Many startups inflate their numbers with friends and relatives to pump up the buyout price. I’ve been offered a VP position in a friend’s startup.
Most startups abandon all ethics in favor of series funding to pay the light bill.