Startup Founder Plays Tech Press Like a Fiddle

theodp writes "Steinar Skipsnes came up with a unique way to get more women into tech. Make them up. Posing as 'Sarah Hanson,' a 19-year-old woman who claimed to have auctioned off 10% of her future income in return for $125,000 to fund her Senior Living Map startup, Skipsnes pitched the story via email to generate press coverage. It worked — VentureBeat, HuffPo, Yahoo!, AOL, GeekWire, and others took the bait. But after doubts were aired about the story, Skipsnes fessed up to concocting the too-good-to-be-true hoax about the female teen entrepreneur to appeal to the interests of the tech press. 'I started to think "what if I took the elements of what the press loves and created a story?"' Skipsnes explained. "So I did.'"

Comments

Re:Wow....

[oodaloop]

Reading is hard. Let's go shopping!

Well, I guess he used good bait

[wcrowe]

Investers: "Oooh! Pretty girl! Shut up and take my money!"

Sheesh. How could people this dumb have so much disposable income?

Steinar Skipsnes?

[ArcadeMan]

So, his name is Steinar Nintendo64?

Re:There are no more Journalists in this country

[CanHasDIY]

I prefer to call those particular events "Pepperidge Farms" moments.

Remember a time when newscasters actually told you shit that matters, after they verified the information and made sure their facts were straight? Pepperidge Farms remembers...