The anecdotal evidence is absolutely overwhelming at this point: Theranos simply doesn't work. Books will be written about this company...
Harvard Business Review's post mortem case study should be interesting as well.
Safeway, Theranos Split After $350M Deal Fizzles
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Re: Safeway, Theranos Split After $350M Deal Fizzles
#42The anecdotal evidence is absolutely overwhelming at this point: Theranos simply doesn't work. Books will be written about this company...
I agree. It will likely be seen as a massive scam. Ideas are cheap. Technology is hard.
Re: Safeway, Theranos Split After $350M Deal Fizzles
#43What options are there for founders to liquidate shares in the process of fundraising but before going public? Are founders typically able to liquidate some amount of shares in funding rounds in order to take home cash, or do investors disallow that entirely until a company is sold or goes public? Theranos is 12 years old at this point, and raised $400 million at a $4.5 billion valuation. Would a founder of a company…
Biggest example is Snapchat, they got and keep asking for millions of dollars money when fundraising. Last year's big drama was Secret app's founder taking $6MM when they raised $25MM then proceeded to buy fancy cars. The product growth stalled and the company shut down in less than a year. Happened with Buffer.
Thanks for the tip to Buffer. They've published a blog post explaining their reasons that I've started reading:
https://open.buffer.com/raising-3-5m-funding-valuation-term-...
> So you might be wondering, why raise funding if everything is going so well and we’re in full control? Here are some of the reasons:
> 1. We’re removing pressure to sell, so we can go all in and keep building Buffer for the next 5-10 years. 2. Setting up a precedent for multiple regular liquidity events for investors and team members. 3. It’s a way to get partners on board who are excited about the unique way we’re running the company. 4. We want to add a little extra cushion to the bank to help us with any speed bumps that might arise [more details on each point in the article]
Their reasons make sense to me.
Re: Safeway, Theranos Split After $350M Deal Fizzles
#44>Safeway Inc. spent about $350 million to build clinics in more than 800 of its supermarkets to offer blood tests by startup Theranos Inc. >The $350 million price tag was equivalent to more than half of Safeway’s net income of $596.5 million in 2012. Safeway had revenue of $44.21 billion. Safeway also invested more than $10 million in Theranos, one former Safeway executive said. >Two of the former Safeway executives…
Well, Holmes _did_ reassure Burd. We cannot rule out the possibility that she is an exceptionally deft reassurer. In seriousness, Safeway gets durable capital improvements to their stores for their $350mm, still useful without Project T-Rex.
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Re: Safeway, Theranos Split After $350M Deal Fizzles
#45Some important points from that article: > Current and former Safeway executives said Theranos missed deadlines for the blood-testing rollout. They also said several Safeway executives questioned the accuracy of results Theranos gave to Safeway employees tested at a clinic in the supermarket chain’s headquarters in Pleasanton, Calif. > Theranos often drew the same employee’s blood twice, first with blood from a finge…
The positive predictive value for the prostate-specific antigen test for prostate cancer is only 30%. This means that only 30% of people who test positive for elevated levels of prostate-specific antigen actually have prostate cancer. This is an intrinsic problem with testing for prostate-specific antigen not with Theranos' testing.
This would suggest that one cannot draw a definite conclusion from the test result. Not that the test result itself should fluctuate wildly.
Re: Safeway, Theranos Split After $350M Deal Fizzles
#46Some important points from that article: > Current and former Safeway executives said Theranos missed deadlines for the blood-testing rollout. They also said several Safeway executives questioned the accuracy of results Theranos gave to Safeway employees tested at a clinic in the supermarket chain’s headquarters in Pleasanton, Calif. > Theranos often drew the same employee’s blood twice, first with blood from a finge…
The positive predictive value for the prostate-specific antigen test for prostate cancer is only 30%. This means that only 30% of people who test positive for elevated levels of prostate-specific antigen actually have prostate cancer. This is an intrinsic problem with testing for prostate-specific antigen not with Theranos' testing.
The issue is not how accurate the PSA test is for detecting prostate cancer, but that Theranos’ tests give wildly different results to everyone else’s FDA approved tests.
Re: Safeway, Theranos Split After $350M Deal Fizzles
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
Where is the line between grossly exaggerating ones product and criminal fraud drawn? Personally I view things where you give someone a false health diagnosis to be among the most egregious deceptions possible, a step beyond running a Ponzi scheme and in line with other things where users are severely hurt or killed.
I will be very surprised if Elizabeth hasn’t crossed the line over to fraud at some point. She is pulling down some very well connected people - she had better like orange.
I'm not even sure it's her fault or the fools who gave a 20 year old billions of dollars to startup a healthcare company. What could go wrong?
Re: Safeway, Theranos Split After $350M Deal Fizzles
#48>Safeway Inc. spent about $350 million to build clinics in more than 800 of its supermarkets to offer blood tests by startup Theranos Inc. >The $350 million price tag was equivalent to more than half of Safeway’s net income of $596.5 million in 2012. Safeway had revenue of $44.21 billion. Safeway also invested more than $10 million in Theranos, one former Safeway executive said. >Two of the former Safeway executives…
> >The former executives said Mr. Burd told them he had been reassured by Ms. Holmes. Mr. Burd continued to support the partnership with Theranos, according to the former Safeway executives.
How does she do it?
No, seriously. I mean, sometimes on my projects I get a really shitty result in the beginning... and I have to explain to my boss that it'll get better -- and I often fail (even though I'm really sure that the project will eventually be okay). How can Holmes reassure people of something that's clearly failing? What tricks is she using?
Re: Safeway, Theranos Split After $350M Deal Fizzles
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
Where is the line between grossly exaggerating ones product and criminal fraud drawn? Personally I view things where you give someone a false health diagnosis to be among the most egregious deceptions possible, a step beyond running a Ponzi scheme and in line with other things where users are severely hurt or killed.
I will be very surprised if Elizabeth hasn’t crossed the line over to fraud at some point. She is pulling down some very well connected people - she had better like orange.
No doubt Henry Kissinger will pull some strings and get a closet full of orange turtlenecks delivered to her in the big house.
Re: Safeway, Theranos Split After $350M Deal Fizzles
#50The anecdotal evidence is absolutely overwhelming at this point: Theranos simply doesn't work. Books will be written about this company...
More importantly, who's going to play her on the big screen?