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Comment by fourseventy | Hacker News Reader

I'm guessing most of the people here who are saying "be truthful" have never started a company. Sometimes you just gotta fudge the numbers a bit and do what needs to be done to get your company off the ground. I've been in your shoes and I recommend saying something like "we are a team of 5".

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Nah. Give the impression of scale if you can and need to, but I would draw the line at outright lying. If it doesn’t totally backfire then it’s dishonest. I would rather lose the deal.

> Sometimes you just gotta fudge the numbers a bit and do what needs to be done to get your company off the ground.

I disagree. I've never had to lie to get a company off the ground, and if that was a requirement, I'd rather let the company die and try again with something else.

Being vague, however, is OK.

"I'd love to meet the team!"

Right. There’s a practical justification for being honest, which is that if you’re dishonest, you can find yourself in a situation of having to continue the lie, or coming clean and damaging or losing that relationship, or even your reputation.

I have started two businesses that have generated positive cash flow (and sat on a board for one that didn’t), and honesty is the only right answer.

You gain trust in thimbles and lose it in buckets.

“We are a small company and don’t discuss employee counts as a matter of policy.”

That's a great answer

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