321–330 of 557 posts
I still find it crazy that her response to a question on how the tech worked was: "A chemistry is performed so that a chemical reaction occurs and generates a signal from the chemical interaction with the sample, which is translated into a result, which is then reviewed by certified laboratory personnel."
Ok, this is the money line in that press release for me: “The charges against Theranos, Holmes, and Balwani make clear that there is no exemption from the anti-fraud provisions of the federal securities laws simply because a company is non-public, development-stage, or the subject of exuberant media attention.” For all those entrepreneurs are trying to "fake it until you make it" be aware that the SEC considers your…
"fake it until you make it" generally refers to the product implementation vs pitch on the consumer side. e.g. You pitch "The best automated way to do X!", but in actuality you have a horde of people doing the work initially to figure out the problem before building the actual automation. There is nothing wrong with this and remains a completely viable approach. What you don't do is tell your investors you've already…
Of course, the benefit from the puffery might outweigh whatever legal risk exists. I’d call that a “calculated risk,” not “fine.”
I still find it crazy that her response to a question on how the tech worked was: "A chemistry is performed so that a chemical reaction occurs and generates a signal from the chemical interaction with the sample, which is translated into a result, which is then reviewed by certified laboratory personnel."
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can believe in yourself without faking anything, and it’s healthy to do so. Faking it implies you want to give others the impression you’re already a big shot, and it dilutes out the accomplishments of people who actually made it. The downside should be that if you’re faking it and you don’t make it, your shame should be relentless and brutal, and no one should ever take you seriously again. Also, even if you mak…
> You can believe in yourself without faking anything... I don't think so. Self-doubt is natural. Mandatory, really. Someone who never has moments of self-doubt is a bad investment risk; it means they probably aren't thinking hard enough about what could go wrong. But concealing those doubts is also mandatory: if you can't, it may be a sign that you have more problems than you know how to deal with.
If you choose to ignore it and fake your way up, you are not being brave, you are being delusional. I'm not sure if delusional people are good investments.
Theranos and Holmes have agreed to settle the fraud charges levied against them. Holmes agreed to pay a $500,000 penalty, be barred from serving as an officer or director of a public company for 10 years, return the remaining 18.9 million shares that she obtained during the fraud, and relinquish her voting control of Theranos by converting her super-majority Theranos Class B Common shares to Class A Common shares. Du…
This will wipe her out, and likely kill her career. Remember, this is just the SEC. The pain they inflict is commensurate to investor pain. The government still should go after them for endangering people’s lives. There should be long jail terms for that.
Will it though? Surely Holmes still has a few million stashed away somewhere that she can live comfortably off of? This settlement isn't going to leave her destitute.
Either that or I'm sure she set up some clever offshore accounting structure that has $10M stashed in the cook islands or some shit. As soon as you get some cash, I think "rich person 101" is you set up some complicated structure to hide rainy day money for this very reason. I would venture to guess she took home at least $50MM in all those rounds of investment (maybe more? i have no idea how that works.), I doubt she blew it all or was stupid enough to leave it in plain sight.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
https://www.axios.com/tim-draper-keeps-defending-theranos-15... "Venture capitalist Tim Draper, an old family friend of Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes, who led an early $1 million investment into the company (split between two investment firms).."
SV/tech/USA is so great, anyone can make it big. You just have to be smart and work hard. Oh, and be family friends with billionaires. Yeah, that's all.
This is an incredibly defeatist/self pitying line of thinking that I'm seeing more of (the world is stacked against me, you have to be born into it, etc) and is related to a lot of other self-defeating thought patterns. It's not going to help you or anyone else who subscribes to it. Maybe it's just that bad news is much easier to see, thanks to the web, so people think bad behavior is more common now, and it's turning people cynical.
> Holmes — a Steve Jobs wannabe who dressed exclusively in black turtlenecks — settled with the regulators for $500,000 while neither admitting nor denying the accusations. What Holmes did is most likely a fraud... but what the regulators did in this part above is pure and simple blackmail and extortion... the only problem is that who's gonna prosecute the persecutors.... This is really not far from wild wild west hu…
> but what the regulators did in this part above is pure and simple blackmail and extortion Settling out of court is blackmail and extortion? If they thought they were innocent they could have had their day in court but instead they basically pleaded "no contest" and took their lumps.
So do those of us accused of sexism for not supporting Holmes a few years ago now get vindicated? Attacking her competence and questioning the Theranos Kool-Aid was seen as sexist and unfair, but it turns out we were right — she is a criminal — or at least a civil violator of securities law.
https://www.axios.com/tim-draper-keeps-defending-theranos-15...
His name is Tyler Shultz. He is the main reason we know know what Theranos was doing. He had his life destroyed, he knew it would happen, what Theranos would do to him, and he did the right thing all the same. Tyler Shultz is a hero. Never let someone tell you that you don't matter. Try hard to do what is right. We need more people like him, be one of them too. Be like Tyler Shultz. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/20…