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Comment by sperry | Hacker News Reader

Seriously? What can this guy possibly share privately that he can't mention publicly? Is he really going to give some special insights that a reader can benefit from to his detriment? Or, does his altruism have some other, hidden agenda?

I, for one, think this guy is a master troll. I can't believe that many HNers are not cynical enough to call him out on his feigned success.

Specifically, Andrew Warner wants to interview him? For what? Why give him a platform if he has no apparent accomplishments worthy of such an audience?

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Yes, a master troll. After numerous people have questioned Max Klein's questionable claims, he posted this to HN:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1345692

So I bit, and sent this email:

    Hi Max,

    I'm one of the curious people who'd like to accept 
    your offer to share more specific information about 
    your current business and products. 
    (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1345692) 
    Thanks for your willingness to share this.

    Best regards,

    Walt Gordon Jones
    http://waltgordonjones.com/

And eventually got this canned response, which I assume everyone else whose email address he skimmed also received:

    Hi Guys,

    I'm facing some difficulty here. I have more than 120 requests to
    reveal my business secrets and this is a bit much, particularly with
    some shady looking email addresses (I'm talking about you
    hungry_for_money1987). But of course, I don't want to seem like a
    fraud, so what I've done is sent the details of my business to 20
    names who are people that I either already know or are working in some
    prominent startup. For the rest of you, you get to see the details in
    August. Add yourself to my mailing list at

    http://maxkle.in

Add to this the fact that Max Klein has boasted before about his ability to game HN'ers. (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1039080)

So, Max Klein, here is my reply. I think you rate somewhere below 2/10 on the authenticity scale, and although your output is high on HN, the value you contribute pales in comparison to other visible members here. This will truly be a better place when you are discovered for who you are. Finally: No, my email response to your fake offer does not constitute permission to spam me with a solicitation for your email list.

Max sent me "the other" email, and I can verify that his claims (at least the claims of having many sales on the app store) are true.

Looking through the applications that he listed, I can see why he wasn't interested in sharing the details of his business with a bunch of strangers. Honestly, his success looks like it's the product of a ton of labor rather than luck or trickery.

If I had gotten the email you got, then I probably would have a similar opinion. I wasn't going to mention anything about it but I think it's only fair to Max that someone say that he's provided the data to back up his claims.

As an aside, please consider this from Max's perspective (and he tried to explain it in the email you got) - he makes his money from a replicable business model; and one that he ramped up in a few month's time. With a flood of people asking for the details on the business model, he opted to give himself some buffer time before explaining everything.

Additionally, in the email you received there was a short list of names that he told you he did send the information to; instead of besmirching him here, you could have emailed any one of them to verify his claims. I know it's frustrating to have incomplete information, but please try to maintain some civility.

I hope we can give the drama a rest for a little while; he's given up a lot more information than I think most people here would.

I appreciate your reply, and all the points you make. My issue is not with how much information he shares. We all have that right. My issue is with a very smart person who knowingly offers to share information he has no real intent to share. That's at least disingenuous.

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