Hacker News Reader

Comment by nkurz | Hacker News Reader

This was submitted earlier today, but didn't get much traction: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7586285

The full title (which doesn't fit in 80 characters) explains the story better:

  The inventor of everything:
  How an egotistical genius convinced Silicon Valley to
  invest hundreds of millions in his shoddy science

It's an account of how Mike Cheiky, the founder of Cool Planet, has an almost uncanny ability to repeatedly raise large amounts of investment based on pseudoscience that doesn't ever pan out. It's one of the most negative pieces on a company that I've ever seen in print.

View on HN

Very interesting read indeed. They guy seems to be trying to sell perpetuum mobile. I am amazed that large, well known companies invested in him. Did they failed to do proper research?

Science-technology has always had hucksters / snake oil salesmen, and always will. They combine optimism, passion, enough science-speak, futurism, and an aurora of 'this is going to change the world.' Those things will always sell.

Good investors recognize that markets>technology. With enough time and money, virtually anything is possible. If Cool Planet does succeed, they will change the way the world uses energy. Chieky is definitely eccentric but he's no more of an a$$hole than Jobs was.

Dang, that is some strong coolaid they are passing around.

Markets are still susceptible to the laws of physics. "Virtually anything is possible" is a pretty meaningless statement.

It's not quite perpetual motion, the energy would come from the sun. Start with organic material, use pyrolysis to produce biochar, which you work into soil, along with flammable gases (which Cool Planet wants to turn into liquid fuel). Here's someone else describing the basic concept: http://biocharfarms.org/biochar_production_energy/

The problem is that it won't produce near as much fuel as Cool Planet claims. According to the article, it turns out a lot of big technology investors don't actually consult engineers during due diligence.

I suspect that a lot of biotech and green energy investors are very good at other things. They came into the money by being good IT entrepreneurs and investors.

Strange, no writing about the idiot people with money who keep wasting money on this guy. Don't hate the player..

While I understand your sentiment, and to a certain degree, agree with you, you're implying "the game" is "how to extract the most money from other people", and not "how to build the best stuff for humanity, and hopefully get rich in the process".

If the game really is "extract the most money", then yes, we should hate the game.

I certainly hope most of us are playing the latter game, rather than the former.

They actually do get a mention in the article.

  The venture capitalists who’ve sunk tens of millions into
  Cheiky’s startups have a lot to lose if his suspect science
  is discovered — exposing Cheiky might stop him from raising
  money again, but it would also tarnish their reputations.
  None of the firms who backed Cheiky would speak with The
  Verge about him on the record, but several shared negative
  impressions on background. Unlike many serial entrepreneurs,
  who return to previous investors for favorable terms,
  Cheiky’s last three startups all have a very different set
  of backers.

Seems they're just playing the same game.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com