( CNN ) -- There 's a website that lies to restaurants , making reservations under fake names , and then sells them to you . If that rubs you the wrong way , you 're not alone . ReservationHop , which launched last week , was hit with a backlash so nasty , it led its creator to call himself `` the most hated person in San Francisco . '' And it 's just the latest on a list of recent startups that have some critics complaining that , in the go-go Silicon Valley startup culture , almost anything can attract interest , and big investor money , even if it seems to straddle the line between right and wrong or even reality and parody . `` This is irresponsible and sleazy and exactly what people hate about startups sucking the life out of San Francisco , '' Wired senior writer Mat Honan wrote of ReservationHop on Twitter . Creator Brian Mayer says he wrote the app , which is San Francisco-only for now , after waiting 30 minutes for a burrito . `` Is this even legal ? Is it ethical ? Restaurants are going to hate this ! '' Mayer wrote in a blog post about the `` overwhelmingly negative '' response he 's gotten . `` To be honest , I have n't spent a lot of time thinking through these questions . I built this site as an experiment in consumer demand for a particular product , and the jury 's still out on whether it will work . '' Complaints centered largely on two issues : making money off something that should be free and hurting restaurants by scooping up reservations that , if not purchased , could lead to empty tables and lost revenue . The going rate for a reservation on the site appears to be $ 12 . After you pay , ReservationHop tells you the fake name to use . Mayer said that he 's been able to cancel reservations that are n't purchased several hours in advance and that `` in the interest of ethics and fairness , '' he wants to talk to restaurants about working with them directly . Selling services that would otherwise be free has become something of a trend in the startup world . Several new parking apps let users in crowded neighborhoods post when they 're about to leave a spot and charge someone for the opportunity to take it . San Francisco 's city attorney has threatened to sue several of those startups , saying they break the law by selling what should be a public commodity . Not all apps raising eyebrows in Silicon Valley are so controversial . Some just shed light on the fact that almost any idea can draw investors with dreams of big payouts in what could be a new tech bubble ... or can at least have venture-capital-seeking creators firing off news releases in hopes of luring a shark . One , Washboard , was n't long for this world . Its concept : selling you money for more money . Selling you quarters to do laundry , to be precise . For $ 27 , the startup would mail you $ 20 worth of quarters . Washboard went under late last month , but not before raising the ire of some in the tech world . `` Probably smart , '' Valleywag 's Sam Biddle wrote of the closure , which apparently came when the startup had drawn fewer than 10 customers . `` But at least they will be 'focusing ( their ) energy on something ultimately more worthwhile , ' which would be anything . Literally anything . Lying down in the middle of the street and screaming would be ultimately more worthwhile than this . '' Then there 's Yo . The messaging app does one thing and one thing only . It lets you send the two-letter greeting , `` Yo ! '' to a friend . No , that 's not a parody ( though it has inspired at least one . Yo , Hodor lets users similarly send a single word to friends , referencing the `` Game of Thrones '' character who speaks only his name ) . That idea ? It raised $ 1.2 million from investors . And reportedly has more than 300,000 users . `` Let me stipulate that in the tech world anything with messaging is hot , '' wrote the Globe and Mail 's Shane Dingman . `` Single-service apps are also hot . The surface of the sun is hot ... that 's where I would like to fling myself rather than take Yo seriously . '' There 's no shortage of analysts speculating that this latest round of apps could be a sign that a tech bubble along the lines of the one that caused early Internet stars to crumble could be upon us . If nothing else , they predict , investors will soon sober up and put their cash into the Facebooks and Twitters of the world rather than vaguely defined startups . Which makes sense ; it 'll leave more money to buy their dinner reservations .
New startup made its creator `` the most hated person in San Francisco '' ReservationHop books restaurant reservations with fake names . Users can pay $ 12 to get the reservation . Website is one of several startups raising questions lately .