Your question.

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.

The persons finds bundled malware acceptable. If they sell software, I'd like to avoid it. This is how I interpreted the question.

The person has clarified that they wanted to know if I ran a pertinent startup - nope! I don't have anything to do with a software download business model, I'm just a consumer. I install things all the time where I have to decline an offer, and I would never accidentally hit "Accept" under a giant picture of unrelated software.

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.

I'd previously assumed that all smart consumers aware of the near-universal malwareness of bundled software would despise this sort of thing. I'm glad to have my wrong premises exposed.

Not with "Aside:", and not without any other context. Especially since they might bundle software (which you'd want to avoid) without having their own startup. So the question is completely unrelated (and the author of the question admitted it).

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?"

It's a completely irrelevant question and not everybody here has a startup.

Their profile states they have one - I checked the profile to see if they were a shill, they mentioned a startup. I think it could be pertinent; I don't see there being harm in asking, they don't have to answer.