The Startup Time Bomb
Our $100M startup was built on a lie, but telling the truth now would destroy 200 families.
I discovered the truth in our legacy code: a script that had inflated our early user numbers. Our '$100M startup' was built on fake data. Not just slightly exaggerated numbers - completely fabricated users, engagement metrics, and growth curves. When I confronted our founder, he broke down. That first lie was during our seed round - he'd been desperate, about to lose everything. One small deception spiraled into an avalanche of lies. Every investor pitch, every board meeting, built on fiction. The twist? Our fake numbers attracted real users. We're now growing faster than ever, genuinely approaching the metrics we'd falsified. Two hundred families depend on us. Our product helps thousands. The original lie is buried in our financial history, but our upcoming IPO means forensic auditors will find it. The founder wants to quietly 'lose' the data. Coming clean means prison for him, layoffs for everyone, and our product disappearing for users who depend on it. Staying quiet feels wrong, but is honesty worth destroying so many lives?