In startup land, everyone acts like hiring’s a cheat code… “just add a rockstar!” But what if that rockstar needs a brief for everything, tanks morale, or burns $280K on vaporware?

In Episode 5 of UnicornPrn, Melissa and Lloyed discuss the hiring disasters that don’t make it to TechCrunch, from corporate dinosaurs who can’t function without minions to vibe hires who vanish before onboarding.

In this episode, you’ll learn:
✅ Why early-stage hiring is high-stakes and emotionally loaded
✅ The common bad hire archetypes that will quietly (or loudly) kill your company
✅ Red flag checklists to spot bad fits before they destroy your culture
✅ When to hire, when to fire, and how to test-drive before you commit

Hot Takes:
✅ “If you keep hiring for tenure over trajectory, you will become the very thing you set out to disrupt.”
✅ “You need to think about hiring as a fiscally responsible decision.”

Grab your popcorn (and maybe your severance template), because this one’s loaded with red flags, cut-worthy hires, and savage founder truths that'll save your runway from going up in flames.

Tune in. Wake up. Think hard. Build smart.

Contact UnicornPrn

• Find show notes of each episode on UnicornPrn.com - hit subscribe like it owes you money

About our hosts

• Melissa Kwan is Cofounder and CEO of eWebinar, and a 3X bootstrapper who has spent the last 14 years building companies without ever raising a cent of venture capital.
• Lloyed Lobo is a WSJ bestselling author, Cofounder of Boast.AI and Traction founder community, startup advisor, angel investor, board member, and LP in multiple VC funds — he’s seen startup chaos from both sides of the term sheet.
• LinkedIn: Melissa Kwan and Lloyed Lobo
• Instagram: @themelissakwan and @lloyedlobo⁠⁠
• YouTube: @themlissakwan and @StartupTraction
• Subscribe to 'your founder next door' at melissakwan.com, Melissa's bi-monthly newsletter on how to build a company without an abundance of resources and fr...

In the startup world, everyone preaches “fake it till you make it”. But what happens when faking it goes too far? Are you a bold founder hustling to realize a big vision, or a fraudster selling pipe dreams and ending up in handcuffs?

In Episode 4 of UnicornPrn, Melissa and Lloyed pull back the curtain on the dark side of startup hustle – when “fake it till you make it” turns into outright fraud. They swap war stories of con artists in the boardroom, from fake user accounts and phantom revenue to corporate espionage straight out of a spy thriller.

In this episode, you’ll learn:
✅ Why startup culture’s obsession with unicorn status pushes founders to flirt with fraud (and sometimes marry it)
✅ Unicorn Hall of Shame
✅ Common lies founders love to tell (until they can't)
✅ Red flag checklists for founders, investors, and employees to spot BS before it blows up
✅ Frameworks for ethical “fake it till you make it”

Hot Takes:
✅ "You don’t need to lie, you can fake it ethically with Wizard of Oz MVP or no-code."
✅ "Don’t be enamored by fraudsters. That quick win can become the fastest path to jail."

Grab your popcorn (and maybe a notepad), because this one’s full of 🚀memes, spicy insights, and hard-earned lessons for anyone in startup land.

Tune in. Wake up. Think hard. Build smart.

Contact UnicornPrn

• Find show notes of each episode on UnicornPrn.com - hit subscribe like it owes you money

About our hosts

• Melissa Kwan is Cofounder and CEO of eWebinar, and a 3X bootstrapper who has spent the last 14 years building companies without ever raising a cent of venture capital.
• Lloyed Lobo is a WSJ bestselling author, Cofounder of Boast.AI and Traction founder community, startup advisor, angel investor, board member, and LP in multiple VC funds — he’s seen startup chaos from both sides of the term sheet.
• LinkedIn: Melissa Kwan and Lloyed Lobo
• Instagram: @themelissakwan and @lloyedlobo⁠⁠
• YouTube: @themlissakwan and @StartupTraction
• Subscribe to 'your founder next door' at melissakwan.com, Melissa's bi-monthly newsletter on how to build a company without an abundance of resources and fr...

Is venture capital the fuel behind world-changing innovation…or just a glorified pyramid scheme where everyone’s pretending they’re building the next Uber while actually praying for a higher valuation before the money runs out?
In this spicy episode of UnicornPrn, Melissa and Lloyed expose how the game is played — founders chasing funding like junkies, markups for AI buzzwords duct-taped to a landing page, unicorn markdowns like it’s Black Friday, and accelerators slapping lipstick on broken products for Demo Day.

Highlights:

• Why VC math makes founders lie to themselves (and investors)
• The dark side of accelerators, demo days, and “investor theater”
• The billion-dollar valuation addiction—and who’s really winning
• The culture of secondary exits, fake wins, and quiet shutdowns
• What happens when the market corrects and the music stops

Hot Takes:

• “A startup that needs constant funding to survive isn’t building... It’s bleeding.”
• “More startups die of indigestion than starvation.”
  
  

If you’re tired of the startup smoke and mirrors, this episode is your wake-up call, and your laugh track.

Listen now. Laugh hard. Think twice. Build smart.

Contact UnicornPrn

• Find show notes of each episode on UnicornPrn.com - hit subscribe like it owes you money

About our hosts

• Melissa Kwan is Cofounder and CEO of eWebinar, and a 3X bootstrapper who has spent the last 14 years building companies without ever raising a cent of venture capital.
• Lloyed Lobo is a WSJ bestselling author, Cofounder of Boast.AI and Traction founder community, startup advisor, angel investor, board member, and LP in multiple VC funds — he’s seen startup chaos from both sides of the term sheet.
• LinkedIn: Melissa Kwan and Lloyed Lobo
• Instagram: @themelissakwan and @lloyedlobo⁠⁠
• YouTube: @themlissakwan and @StartupTraction
• Subscribe to 'your founder next door' at melissakwan.com, Melissa's bi-monthly newsletter on how to build a company without an abundance of resources and fr...