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Theranos Misled Investors and Consumers Who Used Its Blood Test

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Re: Theranos Misled Investors and Consumers Who Used Its Blood Test

#51
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was she the CEO or not? If the CEO does not bear responsibility for egregious, dangerous fraud who does?

Fair but she might be a clueless rube who got played...

Played by who? Who made money on Theranos? Anyone who knew it was a fraud wasn't going to profit from investing. They wouldn't be able to cash out before the product failed at market. Maybe a supplier would profit from selling supplies, but not the investor/advisors.

Re: Theranos Misled Investors and Consumers Who Used Its Blood Test

#52

I haven't found an article or comment that gives me any insight into what Ms. Holmes might have been thinking. Did she earnestly believe she was on the cusp of some breakthrough, or that one was inevitable with enough brute-force application of investor money? Or was she shrewd and cunning to the core, calculating that she could siphon off enough money to make it worthwhile and spend enough money to spin the facts? I…

I would expect the truth exists somewhere in between. I wouldn't rule out the possibility that: * Holmes started with the best of intentions * Theranos raised capital from starry-eyed investors that didn't carry out proper due diligence * Realization set in early on that it wasn't going to work out * Theranos got scared as so much of their time and other people's money had been invested * The questions mounted * Stal…

If things working out better are predicated on rising tech stars admitting they're wrong and forgoing the accolades and adulation that accompany the identifier... I can see why things went the way they did.

That said, from a personal perspective, I honestly hope Ms. Holmes is either a sociopath or was actually in the dark about how bad things were (e.g. her direct reports were lying to her).

It seems like it would be a pretty excruciating mental burden to go into work every day for an extended period of time, knowing your company was inevitably failing, and just trying to keep the plates spinning. Ugh.

Re: Theranos Misled Investors and Consumers Who Used Its Blood Test

#54

Matt Levine proves, again and again, that there’s more nuance to any situation than one might think. He’s the living embodiment of the law’s “reasonable observer”.

I like Matt Levine very much, but exactly what nuance is he adding in this specific case?

Re: Theranos Misled Investors and Consumers Who Used Its Blood Test

#55
post #45

I haven't found an article or comment that gives me any insight into what Ms. Holmes might have been thinking. Did she earnestly believe she was on the cusp of some breakthrough, or that one was inevitable with enough brute-force application of investor money? Or was she shrewd and cunning to the core, calculating that she could siphon off enough money to make it worthwhile and spend enough money to spin the facts? I…

On the "Delusion Con Artist" continuum, I'm inclined to think she's more on the delusion end. If your intent is to defraud, you'd want to avoid a domain that's 1) scientifically accountable, and 2) subject to heavy oversight and regulation. She seems smart enough to know that. This Vanity Fair piece provides a fair amount of character background: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/09/elizabeth-holmes-the...

It also takes a borderline impossibly strong will to have someone look at you, say "You're brilliant, and I want to give you money", and reply "No." Especially when there are others around you who (for their own profit) are echoing the same things.

I decided in undergrad that Honors programs exhibited a lot of the same characteristics. Kids in those tracks are treated with velvet gloves by professors, come to believe their own superiority, are inevitably unprepared for the real world / a colleague proving them wrong.

Hype trains create their own RDFs that effect even the subjects.

Re: Theranos Misled Investors and Consumers Who Used Its Blood Test

#56
"Theranos made direct use of its positive press to raise money: It "sent investors a binder of background materials," which included "articles and profiles about Theranos, including the 2013 and 2014 articles from The Wall Street Journal, Wired, and Fortune"

I can't decide if the investors were foolish for trusting in news articles, or if the news articles should have been trustworthy.

Re: Theranos Misled Investors and Consumers Who Used Its Blood Test

#57

I haven't found an article or comment that gives me any insight into what Ms. Holmes might have been thinking. Did she earnestly believe she was on the cusp of some breakthrough, or that one was inevitable with enough brute-force application of investor money? Or was she shrewd and cunning to the core, calculating that she could siphon off enough money to make it worthwhile and spend enough money to spin the facts? I…

I would expect the truth exists somewhere in between. I wouldn't rule out the possibility that: * Holmes started with the best of intentions * Theranos raised capital from starry-eyed investors that didn't carry out proper due diligence * Realization set in early on that it wasn't going to work out * Theranos got scared as so much of their time and other people's money had been invested * The questions mounted * Stal…

If you want completeness, there may be another possibility: we know that venture capitalists (who spend other people's money, for the most part) have used their positions to improve their sex lives (#metoo) contrary to the interests of their investors. It's just assumed none of them have ever actually handed over millions of other people's money to hairbrained projects in order to accomplish this. I very much hope that's so. But this is a risk of having too many male (or worse, bro) VC executives.

Re: Theranos Misled Investors and Consumers Who Used Its Blood Test

#58

I haven't found an article or comment that gives me any insight into what Ms. Holmes might have been thinking. Did she earnestly believe she was on the cusp of some breakthrough, or that one was inevitable with enough brute-force application of investor money? Or was she shrewd and cunning to the core, calculating that she could siphon off enough money to make it worthwhile and spend enough money to spin the facts? I…

I would expect the truth exists somewhere in between. I wouldn't rule out the possibility that: * Holmes started with the best of intentions * Theranos raised capital from starry-eyed investors that didn't carry out proper due diligence * Realization set in early on that it wasn't going to work out * Theranos got scared as so much of their time and other people's money had been invested * The questions mounted * Stal…

That part about due diligence is what gets me. How do you sink $700M into a company without going over it all with a fine-toothed comb? Where were the scientists and skeptics for the investors? They fell for the "here's a single customer saying it's good, and here's us in the news" routine. I could understand if this was a seed round for a few million in some software venture, but $700M for healthcare tech? This is incredibly negligent.

Re: Theranos Misled Investors and Consumers Who Used Its Blood Test

#59
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would expect the truth exists somewhere in between. I wouldn't rule out the possibility that: * Holmes started with the best of intentions * Theranos raised capital from starry-eyed investors that didn't carry out proper due diligence * Realization set in early on that it wasn't going to work out * Theranos got scared as so much of their time and other people's money had been invested * The questions mounted * Stal…

If things working out better are predicated on rising tech stars admitting they're wrong and forgoing the accolades and adulation that accompany the identifier... I can see why things went the way they did. That said, from a personal perspective, I honestly hope Ms. Holmes is either a sociopath or was actually in the dark about how bad things were (e.g. her direct reports were lying to her). It seems like it would be…

Madoff said he is happier in prison than he was while fearing his scheme would be discovered. [0]

That doesn't really make me any more sympathetic to his criminal and unethical activities.

[0] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bernie-madoff-happiest-ive-been...

Re: Theranos Misled Investors and Consumers Who Used Its Blood Test

#60
post #48

As she long is able to dodge criminal charges, I think she got away with a slap on the wrist. A $500,000 fine and returning most of her Theranos equity is hardly proportionate punishment for a supposed-$700M fraud.

By comparison, Shkreli is going to prison over a mere $10M fraud.
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