Hacker News Reader

It does sound a bit "pitchy" though, especially if the comparison isn't direct. If you're telling Coke about what you did for Pepsi that's one thing. If you're telling Unilever about your work for Proctor and Gamble that's another.

Also, most people with financial experience will realize that a bottom line (net income) is an easily manipulated number. I don't think your generalization is appropriate.

View on HN

I agree. If you're an executive, you get pitched every day with stuff that will "improve your bottom line by 20%". Most of those numbers are smoke and mirrors. It's hard to decipher fiction from reality, which requires often a detailed understanding of how the number was calculated, what other effects may have been present, whether there was an impact with other customers as well (to prevent cherrypicking randomly favorable results), etc.

Execs are busy and it's a lot of work to understand whether that number is legit or not. In response, they will be jaded to your claims of bottom line improvement.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com