Comment by beachy
15 hours ago
I came here to agree with this. You don't put IBM's logo on your page just because one of your team used to work there.
That gives off a bad signal to someone visiting your site.
Everyone's faking it till they make it but at the same time using a logo like that, which universally implies that you have some kind of relationship with that company or they are using your product, is not even faking it.
And that's ignoring the legal challenges you are up for if that company spots you doing it.
BTW this sounds like a genius offering
I was concerned when I read this, and was going to suggest that they consider changing it. But I just looked at the page and it seems clear in context. That section of the page is describing their team, and the text is talking about where they've worked previously. It's true that the logos imply some relationship, but in this case the relationship being implied is that of former employer.
Had the logos been on their frontpage with no explanation, the implication would be that these companies are customers, but there's no such implication here.
(Btw, I appreciate that you're saying this from a place of actually liking the product, or at least the idea, - I think it's often true that criticisms are coming from a place of wanting to like something, but commenters usually don't make this bit explicit and then the criticism just sounds like harshness for its own sake.)
I went back and looked again and while I have moved a little more to your position, I still believe it is misleading. The key text to me is "Our team unites top researchers, engineers, and strategists from pioneering companies and institutions—all focused on building systems that deliver real impact." Under that are the logos. To me, that implies that engineers who are actively employed by those companies are somehow working on this, the assumption being that those employers have blessed it.
I'll admit it's not clear cut - but I feel it deliberately pushes the boundaries, as marketing often does.
But as far as the idea goes, it sounds like a fantastic direction. That should have been my primary message.
Like 90% if not 99% of HN users, I don't like marketing speak either - and am constantly advising founders to prune it from any text they post to HN. But on an "about us" company page? That's a different universe. If you hold that kind of corpspeak against a company on its own website, then your problem is with corporate marketing itself, or nearly all of it. That's also a position many of us sympathize with, but it's unfair to hold it against a specific startup.
> it seems clear in context
While I get marketing and faking it until you make it, I'm struggling to be comfortable with the idea that being with a company for seven/nine months and not holding something above a regular developer role (lead/senior/staff) qualifies you as being a "leading mind" or a "top engineer" from the company logos shown.
I'm not trying to be "harsh for its own sake", I've already been HN rate limited and have no desire to make that worse, so I wasn't sure if I should risk a reply, given this thread has also been manually down-weighted (I appreciate that you commented so we get more context), but I see another reply to your comment so safety in numbers.
I'm sure they're all leading minds and top engineers but I question if that applies in the context of those specific companies they're claiming.
I like the idea of the product, especially that their agents validate transformations against original system via mathematical techniques. It's my flaw that the thing that attracts me to the correctness of their agents also extends to wanting to see slightly clearer credentials of the team involved.
> I've already been HN rate limited and have no desire to make that worse, so I wasn't sure if I should risk a reply
Your account isn't rate limited. Are you talking about a different account? if not, what made you think it was?
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Wait until Elon sees one of their products is called HyperLoop