Ah... I see. I think we're actually in total agreement.

I didn't write that article as a "how-to" guide suggesting entrepreneurs do it. I wrote it as an expose to pull back the curtain on something that I think is a bit of a questionable practice. It's something I did that, in retrospect, I'm not proud of. As a teacher, I hope I can share that lesson and people can learn from it.

Admittedly, some people might read the article and do it themselves, but I think (hope?) more people will benefit from reading the article and gaining a better perspective on startup funding announcements. In other words, they'll hopefully read startup funding announcements more cynically and not just assume the founders got large piles of money dropped into their laps immediately.