Providing revenue and financial metrics are really get eyeballs as this info is rarely available for early stage companies. Balasmiq used this very well, they released early on monthly financial status blogs, which almost all managed to reach front page/top of HN. So, take it as another guerilla marketing channel.
Though the difference between Balsamiq and an IP address lookup service is that HNers don't think they can make Balsamiq in a weekend.
Why do you hear "Please consider" as "I demand/expect"?
"Yes but what's your revenue?" sounds rather demanding.