re: #1 Dark_Falcon

I’ve worked for Silicon Valley firms through a good chunk of my career, and there is no real inflection or adaptation point that causes people to sell out their users. The users are sold out from the moment the company launches. You can’t even get angel funding unless the potential for sell out is implicitly or explicitly defined. Otherwise, you’ll get no investors.

All you’re doing is ignoring your intention to sell them out until you have enough of them to justify the time and expense you put in. That’s why, when the time comes, there is no real moment of existential angst or moral conflict. It’s always been “just business.”

With very rare exception — primarily the startups designed specifically around charity — there are no more plucky young entrepreneurs in the Valley who set out to change the world, and are only then later confronted by the reality of business. The industry, finance, education, and culture of the area are too intertwined and far too mature to allow for that level of naivete.

That’s why I don’t think people will “think it’s for real,” so much as roll their eyes over the characterization that selling out your users is somehow enough of a “thing” to even warrant satire.