Does it matter? They designed, manufactured, and launched a product that sold profitably, doing millions in revenue. They're supporting multiple people full-time.
The vast, vast majority of startups aren't inventing anything new that didn't exist before, either. You don't need to come up with a novel invention to have a successful business; it's usually sufficient just to do something at lower cost, or do marketing better.
Lying matters. We're not talking about some kind of white lie to make someone feel better either. It's lying to make money, which we should all agree is bad.
What exactly are you accusing them of lying about though? I'm not seeing a lie. It does appear that they invented the first folding 6-wheel hand truck, and have the patents to prove it.
> It does appear that they invented the first folding 6-wheel hand truck
They certainly make it appear that way, but it's a lie.
I've seen very similar dollies more than a decade ago, as did others in this thread. Their patents are either invalid or cover some minor aspect to make an impression that they invented the three wheeled stair-climbing mechanism.
> The UpCart ® line of products solve this problem with a unique line of all-terrain folding carts and hand trucks that have been engineered to reduce effort while going up and down stairs and over irregular terrain
A casual reading of this sentence leaves the reader with the impression that their carts are unique because of how they reduce the effort of going up and down stairs and over irregular terrain. This is corroborated further by other messaging such as their logo.
However, that is a lie. There have been similar other carts with exact same wheel setup.
The only unique part of their product is the folding mechanism, and they are clearly trying to project that uniqueness onto the wheel mechanism. And it will definitely work on people who have never seen such wheel setup before.
I think you're really reaching here in describing this as a lie. Their products are unique. They designed them themselves and no one else is manufacturing and selling exactly the same thing. They even have a completely unique feature set (folding + triwheels), which is more than you can say for most products.
Alternatively, sleazy marketing is in no position to define the meaning of words, even if that's most of marketing.
A cable package or car loan does not magically become a GREAT DEAL just because a billboard said so. We're just used to constant lies and aggrandizement in advertising, so all that bullshit looks normal, entirely expected now. It's still bullshit though.
People here are are completely missing the picture and focusing on whether or not the invention is completely original.
The message is, whether or not it is original (looks to be a no), is how he and his partner managed to succeed in launching the product and earning millions in revenue.
I take it that most people here aren't developing, launching, and marketing their own products and creating a company out of it, and don't really care about learning anything from the article.
People in general, but especially anonymous people on the internet are more interested in calling fraud, and telling you why you have no right to success.
I see the same thing on /r/entrepreneurs, MMA forums, YouTube comments, and here. Doesn't matter how hard you worked or how successful you are, even if you're the top fighter in the world who trained for a decade taking hundreds of blows to the head - people will make sideways excuses for themselves by shitting on you.
Meanwhile reality asserts itself and this guy and his partner has made millions by themselves and have established their own independence.
And the takeaway from HN is "My grandma used this 3 decades ago," and "I don't like the text and phrasing on his website."
Did they? I checked their YT channel and vast majority of videos have under 100 views. They might have shipped around $1 million in merchandise to retail channels, where it sits on shelves plastered with "as seen on TV" stickers.
The vast, vast majority of startups aren't inventing anything new that didn't exist before, either. You don't need to come up with a novel invention to have a successful business; it's usually sufficient just to do something at lower cost, or do marketing better.