Kind of a flyer here, but perhaps Draper has been advised to stake out this position as still being a "true believer" because it minimizes his litigation exposure in the case he sold some of shares before the SEC case/investigation became public knowledge.
Tim Draper defends Theranos and its disgraced founder and CEO, Elizabeth Holmes
71–80 of 88 posts
Re: Tim Draper defends Theranos and its disgraced founder and CEO, Elizabeth Holmes
#72From what I understand about biology (which is little), there was no real way this was ever going to work. Am I missing something?
What they promised is theoretically possible, but they ran afoul of the huge practical problems that made people with actual biology and engineering backgrounds (like myself) very, very skeptical.
it's not theoretically possible, due to the statistics of small numbers. You can resolve the nanotainer problem by collecting many of them, but by the time you can measure a statistical difference, you might as well have collected a large volume of blood in the first place.
Re: Tim Draper defends Theranos and its disgraced founder and CEO, Elizabeth Holmes
#73> “Why is [Theranos] worthless? It’s worthless because this writer was like a badger going after her, like a hyena going after her, and then it became a bigger and bigger thing,” he said. “She got bullied into submission,” Draper explained, adding that if it weren’t for Carreyrou and other opponents, Theranos “could have been one of these big, huge winners.” And we would've gotten away with it too, if it weren't for…
So what he's saying is that the two things he doesn't know anything about are business and badgers.
Not quite, "...two OF the things..."
Re: Tim Draper defends Theranos and its disgraced founder and CEO, Elizabeth Holmes
#74Can’t blame him for trying. It puts a seed of an alternate story into our minds. How do other streams of “alternative facts” get started? And many people want to believe that Big Medicine is keeping breakthroughs from us.
You were probably just using a common phrase in some non-literal way, but I absolutely _can_ blame someone for lying in an attempt to make money, all the more so when it is around medical and legal issues.
Re: Tim Draper defends Theranos and its disgraced founder and CEO, Elizabeth Holmes
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
Dunno why you're getting downvoted. It's true, and it only adds to the Drapers being enormous assholes; it doesn't contradict that. The leader of the #calexit campaign was an American who was living in Russia. Plus Russia's been funding far-right parties in Europe.
Dunno why you're getting downvoted Because splitting up into multiple states is not the same as seceding.
This is true. On the other hand, just because it is well publicized the Russians are promoting one movement to disrupt California is not a definitive argument that they aren't involved in another. The pattern has been to promote multiple sides of any possible conflict. Draper was reportedly going to get some assistance[1] from Nigel Farage, of Brexit fame, and Farage has been denying[2] Russian connections recently.
[1] http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert...
[2] http://www.newsweek.com/trump-russia-jewish-farage-brexit-69...
Re: Tim Draper defends Theranos and its disgraced founder and CEO, Elizabeth Holmes
#76Amid his mind-boggling defense, the investor did admit that Theranos was now in the “loser column” of his investments list, a list that also includes Tesla and Bitcoin. The Silk Road assets are likely up 10x or more: https://www.coindesk.com/tim-draper-revealed-silk-road-bitco... If Draper has lost on Bitcoin, it would mean he's done an abysmal job of investing in cryptocurrency since the government auction.
Since Tesla hasn't dipped or crashed recently, Im assuming that the "list" refers to his investment list, not the loser column. It's just a poorly written sentence.
Re: Tim Draper defends Theranos and its disgraced founder and CEO, Elizabeth Holmes
#77> “Why is [Theranos] worthless? It’s worthless because this writer was like a badger going after her, like a hyena going after her, and then it became a bigger and bigger thing,” he said. “She got bullied into submission,” Draper explained, adding that if it weren’t for Carreyrou and other opponents, Theranos “could have been one of these big, huge winners.” And we would've gotten away with it too, if it weren't for…
I'm also irritated by the condescending, misogynistic undercurrent of claim. It seems doubtful the same assertion would have been made if Theranos had been founded/chaired by a man.
This belief that women are without agency is stubbornly persistent and omnipresent.
Re: Tim Draper defends Theranos and its disgraced founder and CEO, Elizabeth Holmes
#78Listen to the full interview here: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/10/early-theranos-investor-tim-... As the founder of a healthcare company, Tim's statement here is the one that I found the most dangerous "If all she had to do was say this was a beta or whatever and all of us would be using it, would be loving it." When it comes to people's health you must have concrete evidence that your product works and is robust. B…
Ridiculous - you're not allowed to release a "beta" in medicine. (I don't use "healthcare" because it doesn't carry any connotation of standards or responsibility.) I guess this guy is from a universe where everything is software, and a dead human being can be rebooted?
> Ridiculous - you're not allowed to release a "beta" in medicine.
So your method in beta and saves 50% of dying peoples lives is not allowed becasue it's not up to the 80% which you expect out of beta.
Most of medicine is in beta, this disallowing beta mindset in medicine is why people die. It's why millions die.
Also try going to a place where medicine really counts and makes large changes to peoples lives (developing countries), it's consistently in alpha cause there it's so obvious it's the best way to do it because they don't get the hide the deaths from delayed 'anti' beta mindsets.
Theranos was never in beta or alpha, is was just a scam.
Re: Tim Draper defends Theranos and its disgraced founder and CEO, Elizabeth Holmes
#79Tim Draper probably understands, privately, that Theranos is an unrecoverable loss. Privately, he has probably learned a lesson about doing better due diligence going forward. Publicly, he is doing what he thinks will benefit him the most: he is signalling to all prospective future investments, that, "If you take my money, I will stand by you through thick and thin." Some future founders might be turned off by this,…
Wow I like the way you think! Hit me in a blind spot I never knew I had.
Re: Tim Draper defends Theranos and its disgraced founder and CEO, Elizabeth Holmes
#80Tim Draper probably understands, privately, that Theranos is an unrecoverable loss. Privately, he has probably learned a lesson about doing better due diligence going forward. Publicly, he is doing what he thinks will benefit him the most: he is signalling to all prospective future investments, that, "If you take my money, I will stand by you through thick and thin." Some future founders might be turned off by this,…
Wow I like the way you think! Hit me in a blind spot I never knew I had.
that people have public and private opinions and they know when and where to express both?