Last week, I decided to look at the Glassdoor reviews. Lots of positive reviews that sounded eerily similar. Then ran across the first negative review that claimed that the positive reviews were written by PR. Then more negative reviews making the same claim. Then re-read the positive reviews. All the "cons" started to sound like "pros", if you were an investor or journalist.
The Secret Culprit in the Theranos Mess Is the Tech Press
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Re: The Secret Culprit in the Theranos Mess Is the Tech Press
#42I'm a bit puzzled by this article. Sure, the tech media didn't question it very much. But then again, I never really associated the tech media with any level of serious investigative journalism. I doubt they have the time, manpower or ability to really dig deep behind the PR barrier. Plus, as the article mentions, they make a lot of money from keeping companies happy. If I want someone to give me the lowdown on what'…
The tech media was, is and always will be a press release aggregator and paraphrasing service.
Re: The Secret Culprit in the Theranos Mess Is the Tech Press
#43Two points worth making: 1. The original Theranos scientist who started the project - Ian Gibbons - committed suicide after saying that "nothing was working" in 2013. After Gibbons wife spoke to the press, Theranos threatened to sue her. 2. The idea of a needle pricking the end of my finger, just to get one drop (not enough for analysis anyway) is horrible. Far better to get it from an area with less nerve endings wh…
If done correctly, getting a drop of blood with a finger prick hurts much less than getting it from a vein in the crook of the arm. I say this from experience, as a diabetic having done both many times.
Re: The Secret Culprit in the Theranos Mess Is the Tech Press
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's a whole lot of people who want there to be a successful female entrepreneur so badly that they're willing to give a rising star the benefit of the doubt. It doesn't help that most members of this cheerleading squad seem to have little more than a middle school level understanding of physics or biology, and no desire to dive into the science before heaping praise on the charlatan of the hour.
There already are successful female entrepreneurs. I don't see them as linked to the bad press so much as the absolutely massive amount of money sunk in the company.
I think w1ntermute's point is that ubeam, like theranos, if working as advertised has the potential to become an ultra successful company. It's not just about having another good company started by a woman...but more about a game changing technology company founded by a woman.
Re: The Secret Culprit in the Theranos Mess Is the Tech Press
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wrote about UBeam here.[1] It's come up several times on YC, and most readers are skeptical. The megahertz ultrasound part can't work in air; attenuation goes up rapidly with frequency, which is why megahertz ultrasound isn't used much. Their patents talk about 75 KHz, which propagates OK in air. But the sound levels they talk about are insane. Their numbers imply a few kilowatts of power going in. You do not want…
There's a whole lot of people who want there to be a successful female entrepreneur so badly that they're willing to give a rising star the benefit of the doubt. It doesn't help that most members of this cheerleading squad seem to have little more than a middle school level understanding of physics or biology, and no desire to dive into the science before heaping praise on the charlatan of the hour.
Meh. Same things would have happened if it was a stereotypical founder. I think being female is tangential.
Look, fraud and deception have been around for much longer than political correctness.
The female angle is definitely a cherry on top, but it's not the substance of the shit sundae served up by Theranos.
Re: The Secret Culprit in the Theranos Mess Is the Tech Press
#46Anybody care to run the numbers on j-school grads at 'traditional' publishers v techcrunch et al? I stopped reading techcrunch years ago when it became clear they largely copied & pasted PR. Rarely do they ask competitors/industry pundits to comment, a standard journalistic practice.
TechCrunch became just another blogspam outfit after Arrington left (or earlier, depending on who you ask). It still has some name recognition, which is why you sometimes see prominent VCs posting editorials there, but it's a shell of what it once was. It used to be a really good source of information but you were right to stop reading it years ago.
Re: The Secret Culprit in the Theranos Mess Is the Tech Press
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
There already are successful female entrepreneurs. I don't see them as linked to the bad press so much as the absolutely massive amount of money sunk in the company.
I think w1ntermute's point is that ubeam, like theranos, if working as advertised has the potential to become an ultra successful company. It's not just about having another good company started by a woman...but more about a game changing technology company founded by a woman.
Yes, exactly.
Re: The Secret Culprit in the Theranos Mess Is the Tech Press
#48The question is: does anyone actually believe Theranos is the only one? They may be the "worst", but I firmly believe there are a few tech darlings that get exposed.
Bingo.
What is different is that most of the future frauds will be explicitly financial in nature, whereas Theranos was a scientific fraud. Material misrepresentation of revenues and costs structure, overinflated usage stats - that sort of thing.
Re: The Secret Culprit in the Theranos Mess Is the Tech Press
#49I do actually feel bad for Holmes. Her later interviews sounded extremely like someone who had gotten in massively over their head and had no idea how to get out. She'll be stained forever by this, her name and Theranos are practically interchangeable at this point.
When will this absurd apologism end? Many people have gone to federal prison for FAR lesser frauds than Theranos is.
Re: The Secret Culprit in the Theranos Mess Is the Tech Press
#50I'm a bit puzzled by this article. Sure, the tech media didn't question it very much. But then again, I never really associated the tech media with any level of serious investigative journalism. I doubt they have the time, manpower or ability to really dig deep behind the PR barrier. Plus, as the article mentions, they make a lot of money from keeping companies happy. If I want someone to give me the lowdown on what'…
The fact that the tech press is a glorified PR copy machine doesn't mean we shouldn't hold them to real standards.
Maybe some will rise to the challenge.