From fake awards to overpriced “growth services”, founders are being profiled, manipulated, and drained at every stage of the journey. We need to talk about it.

→ I didn’t apply.
→ I wasn’t nominated.
→ I never even heard of the publication.

But apparently…

🏆 I just won Most Influential CEO 2025 – Creative Technology 🏆

…aaaaaaaall I had to do was pay a few hundred quid (+VAT) for the HONOUR of being featured. A digital badge, a profile, maybe a gold sticker for my laptop. Yay.

At first, I LOL’D hard.
Then I got annoyed.
Then I realised: this is not random.

This is EVERYWHERE.

If you’re a founder, you’ve probably had one of these land in your inbox too: an award, a “spotlight opportunity”, a listicle you didn’t ask to be in, and you’re JUST one credit card payment away from being officially Important™.

But let’s stop pretending this is about recognition. It’s not.
It’s a business model.
And we’re the “❌” on the map.

Because the truth is: founders aren’t being celebrated.
We’re being profiled, farmed, and monetised, one fake accolade at a time.

💋 The Flattery Pipeline

Once you’ve been flagged as a startup founder, you enter “The Pipeline”.

It starts with praise: a generic email telling you how brilliant, visionary, or “nominated” you are. The sender is always friendly, the tone rehearsed, the offer vague but exciting.

Sometimes it’s an award. Sometimes it’s a “spotlight”. Sometimes it’s a list of the “top 100 disruptors under 40 with nice eyebrows.”

But it always ends the same way: THEY. WANT. YOUR. MONEY.
They frame it as an editorial fee, a partnership, a visibility boost; but it’s all the SAME product.

What they’re really selling is the feeling of being SEEN.

These services don’t care what you’ve built. They care that you’re a founder, which means statistically speaking, you’re tired, broke, visibility-starved, and a *prime* target for ego-flavoured bait.

Once you engage, it doesn’t stop.
You get more emails, more offers, more schemes wrapped in validation language.
You’re no longer a person. You’re a lead.
And they’re running a funnel.

💫 Through you.

Don’t surrender to the bait

💰 How the System Profits from Your Self-Doubt

This isn’t about vanity. It’s about vulnerability.

Founders live in a constant state of uncertainty, and the system KNOWS it.

You’re not being targeted because you’re full of yourself. You’re being targeted because you’re doubting whether ANY OF THIS DELULU is working, and you’re just desperate enough for *something* that looks like traction.

These schemes don’t go after the winners. They go after the ones mid-sprint, mid-build, mid-burnout. The ones still waiting for proof that their work is valid. The ones who can’t yet afford a proper PR team but still need to look like they matter. The ones who are told daily that “perception” is half the battle.

✨✨ You know, “FaKe iT TilL YoU MaKe iT” club ✨✨

And they sell you exactly that: perception. Covered in praise. Backed by a price tag. Framed as opportunity.

They know how to mirror your internal monologue.
You’re working too hard. You’re not being seen. You need a *signal* that you’re doing something right. You need to be “positioned” or “amplified” or “celebrated.”

They don’t need to convince you they’re real. They just need to catch you on the right (or wrong) day! And that’s what makes the whole thing work. Not because founders are naïve; but because the system is built to catch us at our most Human.

Visibility Package Tier 1

💣 Founder Exploitation is a Scalable Business

I’ve been scammed more times than I’d like to admit.

Been ghosted after paying thousands for an “investor outreach” campaign that never happened. Or a pitch deck so generic, I’m certain it was built using a free Canva template.

I’ve had to take not one, but TWO to court.
One I won. Got my money back. And an NDA.
Another case is still pending.

And no, I’m not some clueless newbie who clicked the wrong popup banner ad. I read the contracts. I asked the questions. I pushed back.

🤯 And I still got f*cked.

Let’s not sugarcoat it. That’s EXACTLY how this industry works.
Once you’re a founder, you’re on every list.
You’re a walking target and a business model.
They know you’re tired, cash-strapped, and constantly wondering if you’re doing any of this right.

So they offer you “help.”

✅ Investor access.
✅ Warm intros.
✅ Done-for-you decks.
✅ Awards.
✅ Features.
✅ Mentoring.
✅ Matchmaking.

✅ A visibility boost for just £799 + VAT.

And suddenly you’re not running a startup anymore. You’re running from vultures trying to invoice your imposter syndrome.

99.9% of these “services” aren’t designed to support you. They’re designed to extract value from your desperation. They don’t care if you get funded. They don’t care if you grow. They just want your card on file.

Because that’s the game: take your money, wish you luck, and scale the funnel.

That said —and this is important— not EVERYONE is a freakin’ parasite. There are a few people in this mess of an ecosystem actually doing real, good work. People who won’t lie to your face to close a sale. People who will tell you when you’re not ready, instead of upselling you a PDF to make you feel like you will close a round next week.

And if you’re one of those people? This rant isn’t about you. You know who you are, and I’m always glad to point founders your way.

But for everyone else?

💀 The ones running founder burnout as a subscription service?
😠 I see you.
😤 And I’m done playing nice.

✊ Founders Need a Union. No, Seriously.

The only reason these scams keep working is because no one talks about them.
We’re all too embarrassed. Too busy. Too NDA’d. Too worried about looking unprofessional, or like we “should’ve known better.”

But HOW could we know better, if no one ever told us?

I was a n00b 2 years ago. I didn’t have the experience. I didn’t have the network. I had to learn by getting burned. Again, and again, and again.

And now, thanks to NDAs and threats of legal action, I can’t even name the people who f*cked me over.

But I will say this: If another founder comes to me for advice, for a sanity check, for a “have you heard of this company?” gut check; I will break that NDA in spirit and scream the f*cking answer.

Because this is how we STOP this:

We talk. We warn each other.
We share names privately, build our own blacklists, and stop letting this f*ck-uppery hide behind glossy websites and staged testimonials.

→ We don’t need more awards.
→ We don’t need another platform promising visibility.
→ We need protection.
→ We need the truth.
→ We need each other.

If the startup ecosystem won’t build a safety net, we will.

Founder to founder.
DM to DM.
Burn victim to burn victim.

A real FOUNDERS UNION, built from scars, not sponsorships.

Because if we don’t do it together, we’ll keep getting picked off one by one. And that’s not just unfair. That’s by design.

And it ends right here, right now.

Get a grip on your imposter syndrome

🫠 Been burned? Almost fell for it?

DM me. Tell me and everyone you know your story.
Or share this with the founder you wish had warned you.

No more silence!

_____

With 🧡💜🖤 from the middle-stack,

Esther from Singularity

💌 Hate mail here: esther@singularity.uk.com