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Theranos didn’t work with the huge drug company it supposedly made money from

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Re: Theranos didn’t work with the huge drug company it supposedly made money from

#21

Post by minimaxir »

volaski wrote: post #18
minimaxir wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's interesting is that venture capitalists are slamming media outlets for reporting on the issue. Here's a rather silly rebuttal to a recent Theranos piece on The Information from Dave Morin: https://twitter.com/williamalden/status/658705178523258880 "Isn't it time as Millenials that we try to use the Internet to unearth deeper facts and see through these traditional smear campaigns?"

It's a conflict of interest only if there actually is a conflict of interest. Tell me, what "conflict of interest" does Dave Morin have with Theranos?

Not a conflict of interest in the legal sense, but more of a conflict of interest in the ethical sense since venture capitalists have a lot to lose if the allegations have any truth.

I edited the parent post for clarity.

Re: Theranos didn’t work with the huge drug company it supposedly made money from

#23

Post by 7Figures2Commas »

volaski wrote: post #18
minimaxir wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's interesting is that venture capitalists are slamming media outlets for reporting on the issue. Here's a rather silly rebuttal to a recent Theranos piece on The Information from Dave Morin: https://twitter.com/williamalden/status/658705178523258880 "Isn't it time as Millenials that we try to use the Internet to unearth deeper facts and see through these traditional smear campaigns?"

It's a conflict of interest only if there actually is a conflict of interest. Tell me, what "conflict of interest" does Dave Morin have with Theranos?

It doesn't look like there's a conflict of interest (Morin, as far as I can tell, is not a Theranos investor), but I think you're overlooking the fact that a lot of prominent tech investors are sitting on investments in companies that have been significantly overvalued, and the cracks in some of these companies are starting to become apparent.

There's a decent discussion on this here[1]. Red flags, like reports of late-stage investors marking down the value of some of their unicorn investments, are starting to mount and I think that has to be worrisome for investors who are sitting on large unrealized gains that could easily evaporate.

Expect to see a lot more hand-waving on the part of investors as prominent unicorns come apart at the seams.

Morin, according to his AngelList profile, is an investor in a number of unicorns, including AirBnB, Dropbox, Evernote and Slack. Two of the mutual funds that invested in Dropbox have reportedly marked down their investments[2] and some media reports suggest Evernote is in trouble[3].

[1] https://pando.com/2015/10/27/techpocalypse-coming/

[2] https://www.theinformation.com/mutual-funds-mark-down-dropbo...

[3] http://www.businessinsider.com/evernote-is-in-deep-trouble-2...

Re: Theranos didn’t work with the huge drug company it supposedly made money from

#24

Post by Netbeing »

erobbins wrote: post #7

Between this and the "wireless energy over ultrasound" scam I'm starting to wonder if VCs actually do any due diligence at all.

Not all VCs are equally (in)competent. I've always felt that one of the root causes of the ~2000 dot-com bubble was a proliferation of incompetent VCs chasing the glut of investment capital. Things seem roughly the same these days, or maybe even worse, since the eventual-rationality of the public markets can't come into play if there's no IPO.

Re: Theranos didn’t work with the huge drug company it supposedly made money from

#26

Post by raverbashing »

7Figures2Commas wrote: post #17
raverbashing wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bet they pour over and nitpick lots of minor details on the financials Tech? That's for the nerds. The light is blinking so it's fine I guess

> I bet they pour over and nitpick lots of minor details on the financials What financials? Lots of these companies have little to no revenue.

The ones on the business plan

Re: Theranos didn’t work with the huge drug company it supposedly made money from

#27

Post by Crito »

minimaxir wrote: post #8
notacoward wrote: post #5

This company is looking less and less like they're struggling to develop new technology, more and more like a deliberate sham. Given that so much of their support thus far has been due solely to the Cult of Disruption, I can't help but wonder if news like this might make at least a few investors consider a return to good old-fashioned due diligence before placing their bets.

What's interesting is that venture capitalists are slamming media outlets for reporting on the issue. Here's a rather silly rebuttal to a recent Theranos piece on The Information from Dave Morin: https://twitter.com/williamalden/status/658705178523258880 "Isn't it time as Millenials that we try to use the Internet to unearth deeper facts and see through these traditional smear campaigns?"

Search for Theranos (and related terms) in HN history with the search bar at the bottom of the page.

A lot of high profile posters making very embarrassing defences of Theranos. Lots of thinly veiled accusations of ageism, sexism, ludditism, etc. I fear few will learn any lasting lessons from this saga.

Re: Theranos didn’t work with the huge drug company it supposedly made money from

#28

Post by erobbins »

mmahemoff wrote: post #19
7Figures2Commas wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I bet they pour over and nitpick lots of minor details on the financials What financials? Lots of these companies have little to no revenue.

Projections up and to the right.

"this graph looks like a hockey stick, how's $50 million?"

Re: Theranos didn’t work with the huge drug company it supposedly made money from

#29

Post by pen2l »

Netbeing wrote: post #24
erobbins wrote: post #7

Between this and the "wireless energy over ultrasound" scam I'm starting to wonder if VCs actually do any due diligence at all.

Not all VCs are equally (in)competent. I've always felt that one of the root causes of the ~2000 dot-com bubble was a proliferation of incompetent VCs chasing the glut of investment capital. Things seem roughly the same these days, or maybe even worse, since the eventual-rationality of the public markets can't come into play if there's no IPO.

The first VC who backed Theranos is a pretty smart guy. Was first in his class at Stanford, has an otherwise pretty nice portfolio of companies he has funded

Re: Theranos didn’t work with the huge drug company it supposedly made money from

#30

Post by kevinskii »

Crito wrote: post #27
minimaxir wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's interesting is that venture capitalists are slamming media outlets for reporting on the issue. Here's a rather silly rebuttal to a recent Theranos piece on The Information from Dave Morin: https://twitter.com/williamalden/status/658705178523258880 "Isn't it time as Millenials that we try to use the Internet to unearth deeper facts and see through these traditional smear campaigns?"

Search for Theranos (and related terms) in HN history with the search bar at the bottom of the page. A lot of high profile posters making very embarrassing defences of Theranos. Lots of thinly veiled accusations of ageism, sexism, ludditism, etc. I fear few will learn any lasting lessons from this saga.

There were also others who were making pointed and substantive critiques of Theranos on HN many months before any of these stories broke.

Edit: Some examples: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8182026

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