Ask HN: Startups should brag less and ship more (guilty as charged)

3 points by paulwilsonn 193 days ago | 9 comments

Every founder I know (including me) spends too much time on decks and demos instead of shipping. We justify it as “raising awareness” or “community building.” But I’ve never seen a pitch deck go viral-only real products.

Anyone else feel this trap?

ashed96 191 days ago |

Opposite problem here - all building, no marketing. Now struggling with GTM because nobody knows we exist.

The real trap is thinking it's either/or. You need both engines running.

ungreased0675 193 days ago |

My first question when screening small companies: Please show me the product, I don’t mind if it’s half baked.

If they can’t show me something, that’s the end of the engagement.

paulwilsonn 192 days ago | |

Absolutely. A tangible product, even if rough, shows execution and commitment. Ideas are easy -prototypes prove there’s real traction.

Datail 192 days ago |

I completely agree! If they can’t show anything, it makes it hard to believe in their ability to execute and complete the rest.

raw_anon_1111 190 days ago | |

You haven’t seen all of the funded YC “AI” companies with nothing but non technical founders, a pitch deck and trying to hire a “founding engineer” for peanuts with the promise of worthless “equity”.

paulwilsonn 192 days ago | |

Exactly. Early execution speaks volumes - even a rough prototype shows they’re serious and capable of turning ideas into reality.

spiderice 190 days ago | | |

How long until LLMs learn not to use em-dashes? Literally 100% of the comments on this account have an em-dash in them.

jf22 192 days ago |

It's not bragging. It's marketing.

ashed96 190 days ago | |

All marketers ~~are liars~~ tell stories.