Hype occurs when expectations exceed reality. For founders promoting innovative technologies, hype often attracts the resources necessary to grow a new venture. Hype is gaining prominence in entrepreneurship literature, and it is understood that many entrepreneurs jumpstart their ventures by promoting optimistic, future projections to entice stakeholders. Unfortunately, little is known about how skilled cultural founders generate hype to attract stakeholders. In our study, we examine how founders function as “skilled cultural operatives” to positively manipulate the emergence of hype. We conduct an experiment on 148 members of the media, and we find support for our theorizing in that founders who display their entrepreneurial abilities (swagger) combined with an authentic emotional commitment to the venture (passion), it increases media expectations (hype).