Think of the role that an &quot;Advance Man&quot; played for traveling circuses in days gone by...they were on the road keeping a couple of towns ahead of the circus&#x27; itinerary and drummed up interest with posters, flyers, and sales puffing, so that the circus would be profitable once it arrived...<p>Spending VC money on &quot;advertising&quot;, or attempting to generate the same &quot;buzz&quot; for free on social media probably amounts to about the same thing...<p>Is the &quot;circus&quot; (startup) being advertised to investors the &quot;real deal&quot;...ah, the risk of the bet...will it scale, or will it fail...?<p>It seems that the savvy are becoming a bit wary of relying on the hype of an Advance Man (advertising)...when marketing is required to establish a product as opposed to the product establishing itself, through proven utility, the ground is certainly shaky...