‘Stanford dropout, Stripe alum…’: How VCs were ready to fund a fake start-up founder profile on LinkedIn

Studying from premium institutes and prominent places is known to attract the investors’ eye within the start-up world. So it was not surprising when an AI-generated fake profile on professional networking platform, LinkedIn, caught a funding offer from a venture capitalist in just 24 hours. 
 
Roshan Patel, the founder and CEO of personal finance application Walnut took to Twitter to share how he created the fake profile named “Chad Smith.” Patel added in the personal details of Chad Smith, he wrote that he was a dropout of an Ivy League University, had previously worked at fintech firm Stripe, going through YC and “polymath.”
 

He then wrote that within 24 hours, we received a request from a VC. “Hey Chad – I’m an analyst for XXXX ventures and saw you were starting your founder journey. A few ex-Stripe buddies of mine had great things to say about you and I’d love to connect to learn more about what you’re building and share more about our fund,” the message from the man read. His name and company was hidden in the screenshot Patel shared.
 
The post received hilarious reactions. One of the users called Nash David wrote, “There's another fellow somewhere tweeting they created an AI generated VC profile to X people. Y actually responded.”
 

Another user said, “This is a human trait. It exists in every country and every ethnicity. Just build something that adds value to customers who will pay for it.”