write.as

Startover + one very wild founder I’ve been getting these Startover ads all over my feed lately, and finally caved and clicked. Looks to me like an MLM that’s desperately trying not to get called an MLM. There’s no downline on paper, but everything else is there: you pay thousands to join, you’re told you’re “transforming your life,” you’re pushed to bring in more people, and the only person who seems to make any money is the guy running it. The $50k “chapters” he sells are literally just permission to recruit more people back into the same funnel. It’s Herbalife without the shakes. And then then there's the dude behind it — Marco Robinson — a man who lies so outrageously it’s basically his brand. The guy's claimed to be: nearly assassinated by a hot Russian female assassin sent by Putin, a backing dancer for Michael Jackson, a British knighted 'Sir' (he bought a bogus title in Malay), best selling author, a billionaire timeshare legend, a Netflix producer (who got sued x3 for lying about that), and a TV star who “gave away a house” (except he didn't) amongst other things. Then there's his businesses: his “award‑winning” restaurant was just a directory listing, his “£25m property empire” had £8k turnover and flopped, his Naked Dollars scam promised a 7000% return and delivered zero, his "billon-dollar" tequila “empire” has £46k in the bank, and now he's claiming he's starting a global new airline except that's news to any dept that governs airlines. Here's the rabbit holes: [The Many Faces Of “Sir” Marco Robinson](https://deadline.com/2025/09/marco-robinson-netflix-claims-contested-1236553535/) — news piece on him from Deadline last year. Two deeper dives that cover what Deadline left out: [Marco Robinson — The Man, The Myth, The ‘Legacy of Lies’](https://write.as/fitzz/marco-robinson-the-man-the-myth-the-legacy-of-lies) [Marco Robinson & Start Over — A Closer Look](https://write.as/fitzz/marco-robinson-and-start-over-a-closer-look) Dude's a pathological