HN is usually pretty good about calling out founders who blame everyone but themselves for failings. This is exactly that, just in a restaurant context.<p>The problem is that Ari thought that Alma&#x27;s humble origins mattered to people coming in for a good meal such that they would somehow obscure some pretty big problems with the restaurant. I can&#x27;t imagine ever excusing a product&#x27;s flaws simply because the founder had difficulty raising capital, and no other restaurant has these deluded expectations.<p>In this case, the founder didn&#x27;t listen to his customers — instead, he chose to rest on his MVP laurels and never move beyond. We appreciate that you were able to open the place on $50k, but now that you&#x27;re more well known, could you possibly stop ripping people off with Eastern European wine that didn&#x27;t pair with any of your tasting menu? I understand that your approach required an &quot;us vs the world&quot; mentality, but perhaps you could improve service that was spotty bordering on rude. When your customers dislike the tasting menu because it lacks many standout flavors beyond the snacks that initially made you famous, it&#x27;s advisable to step up your dishes, not simply change to an ala carte menu and start blaming the Yelpers.<p>From what I can tell, he raised his own funds to start Alma. Before that, he was fired from an internship at a James Beard award winning restaurant, worked unpaid at a community garden and few other places until he just up and left. The article notes that he&#x27;s never appeared on any of the cooking shows or anything, and that he was about to have to start working in someone else&#x27;s place before the permanent real estate &quot;opened up&quot; in Downtown LA (which makes no sense if you&#x27;ve been to the neighborhood).<p>Point being, it&#x27;s easy to sound blasé about giving a fuck what other people think of your cooking, but it masks the fact that this guy has never had to answer to anyone about some very obvious flaws in his cooking and business skills. Instead, blame your customers and their &quot;shit talking.&quot;<p>Good riddance.