AI startup 11x will rent you a bot to find you sales prospects, craft an appropriate email, and schedule an appointment to pitch a sale to them. Wow! So how’s 11x doing? It’s landed $74 million in …
    • bitofhope@awful.systemsEnglish
      10·
      2 days ago

      The headline is a bit of a crash blossom, but if you read the article, the comments in this thread, or even the title itself carefully enough, you should be able to parse it. If not, I’ll help:

      A startup company named “11x”, whose business model is AI sales, claims to have customers for its software (which incidentally doesn’t work), who in fact are not their customers.

      • NoSpotOfGround@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        2 days ago

        No, that title is orthographically wrong, besides using some very non-standard phrasing: the name of the startup, 11x, should have been between commas.

          • NoSpotOfGround@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            2 days ago

            AI sales startup Never claims customers it doesn’t have for software that doesn’t work

            See how that risks getting really confusing without commas or quotes?

            They’re called appositive commas and they surround “not essential” add-on information. The name of the startup here is not truly essential, it’s added just for color (pretty sure nobody’d think, “oh, a typo” if they wrote “12x”).

            • blakestacey@awful.systemsEnglish
              5·
              2 days ago

              The name of the company is actually important information in a news story about a company.

              And yes, if you change the headline to one that is confusing, then it becomes confusing.

            • self@awful.systemsEnglish
              4·
              2 days ago

              wow! imagine if this post was funny, informative, or even fucking correct at all

              I notice you didn’t give an example of the title with appositive commas though. maybe because it flows like shit?

              • self@awful.systemsEnglish
                5·
                1 day ago

                or alternatively, and hear me out here

                lecture me on fucking grammar again like a mediocre grade school teacher and get banned

                • NoSpotOfGround@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  1·
                  1 day ago

                  I’m assuming you’re a mod or admin here? I’m surprised you took my explanation as lecturing… I was merely explaining in what way that title is wrong when you mocked my comment. No offense meant.

                  Stand up straight when I’m talking to you!

                  I never knew you were a person who wielded a lot of power here. I’m glad you mentioned that, as anyone with confidence in themselves should.

                  If I catch you missing another capital letter or punctuation mark, you’re off to the principal, you hear me?

                  Please accept my apologies and hope that we can overlook this momentary lapse on my part. Please, no ban?

  • ebu@awful.systemsEnglish
    9·
    3 days ago

    claiming to have customers you don’t actually have so vocally that they have to sue you to get their names out of your mouth should be a death knell on its own, but the whole “pretending their already-expired three-month trial contract is still in effect for the full year” is a great way to find yourself pulling a Sam Bankman-Fried, except that you don’t have a side company to pull $$$ from to cover your tracks

    • mountainriver@awful.systemsEnglish
      9·
      2 days ago

      The investors read “11x, the company’s, revenue is 10 million” but what they missed was that the correct reading was “11 x [the company’s revenue] is 10 million”, so the actual revenue is less than a million. Easy mistake to make! Better luck next time investors!