Extremely distasteful.
When you ask someone about an irrelevant detail related to their status in the community while you are discussing something unrelated, it implies (quite strongly) that you are trying to change the topic from what is at hand to a comparison of credentials, and it also implies that you believe your credentials to be better in some way, somehow giving you an upper hand.
If you are truly independently curious about their startup, ask them separately.
But you were not (you admitted as much). So it's distasteful.
If you do google the specific thing being advertised (as I would if I wanted to know exactly what I was accepting) you would find something quite mixed. It has nothing to do with the format of the offer though (or with me.) It's like an ad. In the specific screenshot I linked, which is this one: https://i.imgur.com/hNDdz4P.png
Yes, I have no problem seeing offers in that specific format in my personal case as a consumer. No, I have nothing to do with any of these companies.
If one wants to ask a related question, ask a related question: "Do you bundle adware with any software that you distribute? If so, which software is that?"
What would be less ambiguous would be when you download an installer for an app then the installer installs that app and doesn't attempt to trick you in to "accept"ing what you think is the initial app install but is in fact an entirely different app.
If you really wanted to let them add apps people don't want then at the point of download an unchecked box could have an offer for unrelated software and that offer would state something like "software we're getting paid to have installed on your computer". That too would be unambiguous.
It's like someone offers you a bag of sweets and as you take them they say "you're fine with cryptosporidium" under their breath; you think they muttered some marketing slogan and instead you get ill from the sweets. Perfectly acceptable, you even had chance to find out what was in the sweets /s.
Aside: What's your startup?