"Did Google's founders lie? Did Facebook's? There are plenty of startups that were pretty honest about what they were doing - not just ones who succeeded wildly like those two but ones that succeeded moderately and those that failed."
Depends. It's part of the "fake it 'till you make it" ethos. The ones who succeed didn't "lie" because they did eventually "make it". Many, possibly most, don't. It's not necessarily lying if they don't make it either. It might just be having no business acumen in the company. Then there's the successes where the founders got kicked out by the people with business acumen and may or may not then go on to better things or crash'n'burn because they got rid of the pesky techy founders.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
