Should Entrepreneurs Lie? It's a Tricky Question. In the hustle of the startup world, entrepreneurs often drop little white lies -- and don't even consider them to be lies. Where's the ethical line?

Gary Hirshberg knew the exact amount of money he needed to save his company: $592,500. It was 1988, and his fledgling yogurt brand, Stonyfield Farm, was near collapse -- rocked by the closing of its third-party manufacturer, hemorrhaging money as it struggled to fulfill orders and unable to find new investors. But with that exact amount of cash, Hirshberg and his co-founder, Samuel Kaymen, calculated, they could open their own facility and regain their footing.

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So Hirshberg drove down to his local SBA office with an informal proposal. "We've got a bank willing to provide the loan," he told an officer, and he said his shareholders agreed to put up $100,000. All he needed from the SBA was its 85 percent loan guarantee, which would make the bank comfortable executing the financing.