Hardly Working: Start-up Guys

Dropout0 HN recommenders · 2011–2020
1.1M views · comedy · evergreen · Uploaded 2011-06-15

A CollegeHumor sketch from the Hardly Working series in which a pair of startup founders pitch a website using incomprehensible buzzwords and branding nonsense. It parodies Silicon Valley startup culture.

HN commenters cite it as the go-to parody of startup pitch culture whenever buzzword-heavy startups come up.

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7 comments from Hacker News

@hansy2011 · in “What are some inspiring videos I can watch to renew my passion for startups?”

This is just for fun (not informational at all), but I love how it parodies the startup culture. College Humor Start-up Guys: [VIDEO] At the very least the video will cheer you up :)

@cnorgate2011 · in “I Don't Understand What Anyone Is Saying Anymore”

Too true. Some guys over at college humor are on to this problem already... Anyone who has spent time in Silicon Valley will find this clip awesome! [VIDEO] Enjoy!

@JonnieCache2012 · in “Vooza”

Woefully inaccurate: it has vowels in the name. In fact, mostly vowels in the name. Also, collegehumor did this better a year ago: [VIDEO] For that matter, so did Color.

@confluence2012 · in “Peter Thiel gives new class of students $100K to forgo college”

Feeling was implied I just gave it a cynical twist, and I quote: Ritik Malhotra (19, San Jose, CA) Ritik began programming at age 8; started a popular web forum at the age of 12 that grew to over 32,000 members; and ran a web hosting and software consultancy business at the age of 13, garnering over a 600x return on his initial investment. I wonder what he started with - $10? Taylor Wilson (18, Texarkana, AR) became the youngest person in history to create nuclear fusion. Since then, he has produced the lowest-cost and lowest-dose active interrogation system for the detection of enriched uranium ever developed. As a Thiel Fellow, Taylor will focus on both counter-terrorism and the production of medical isotopes for use in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. I ... no ... I can't even address this. Omar Rizwan (18, East Hanover, NJ) wants to change the world through the control and analysis of information. Nothing big there. Just changing the world. Don't mind me. Jimmy Koppel (20, St. Louis, MO) has a passion for software engineering – and a plan to make it much more efficient. Modifying software today often involves hundreds of thousands of small, similar adjustments that require a great deal of time and money. James will fix that problem by developing new tools to automate the process. It's almost like software engineering is real work. But hey, this kid is going to "automate the process". Yoonseo Kang (18, Mississauga, ON, Canada) recognizes that society’s potential for

@dylandrop2013 · in “RapGenius Growth Hack Exposed”

Oof, that video is cringe-worthy ("baller-sourced" please no..). Moreover, they're dressed and acting _exactly_ like CollegeHumor's The Startup Guys. [VIDEO]

@lgleason2020 · in “CollegeHumor shuts down”

The did a great parody of many startup pitches that I've heard over the years. Hopefully they can save it. [VIDEO]

@_nedR2020 · in “CollegeHumor shuts down”

How can you talk about Sam Reich in CollegeHumour videos in a hacker news thread and not choose "Startup guys" as an example : [VIDEO] Looking at it now, this video seems to have been particularly relevant, considering that the company went bankrupt because they trusted a bunch of silicon valley frauds i.e. Facebook..