A Marriage Gone Bad: Walgreens Struggles to Shake Off Theranos • Hacker News Board

Re: A Marriage Gone Bad: Walgreens Struggles to Shake Off Theranos

#61

Post by Fede_V » Fri, Apr 22, 2016, 4:41 PM UTC

hvs wrote: post #32

endymi0n wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She did make some progress for equality though - to show that not just men can be completely incompetent founders running an overhyped company that never had any connection with reality whatsoever.

Unfortunately, there's a segment of society that will extrapolate the high-profile failure of one woman to reaffirm their misguided belief that her gender was part of the reason for her failure.

That's probably the most unfortunate thing about the entire situation. Well that, and the people working for Theranos who will face the backlash.

Re: A Marriage Gone Bad: Walgreens Struggles to Shake Off Theranos

#62

Post by 1024core » Fri, Apr 22, 2016, 4:42 PM UTC

JamilD wrote: post #14

1024core wrote: post #11

A part of me feels sad for Theranos. I wanted them and Elizabeth to succeed; more the latter, actually. If she had succeeded (I still hold out hope), she would have been a terrific role model for young women everywhere.

A role model for young women with parents coming from old money, with both Beltway and VC connections? It'll be great to have another role model in tech for young women, but incidents like this do more harm than good…

So was Bill Gates. That didn't stop people from idolizing him.

Re: A Marriage Gone Bad: Walgreens Struggles to Shake Off Theranos

#63

Post by tclmeelmo » Fri, Apr 22, 2016, 4:45 PM UTC

jonnathanson wrote: post #47

tclmeelmo wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would predict that it depends on where the money is coming from. For VC firms that are experienced in the biomedical space, Theranos changes nothing because they were already suspicious of Theranos. For firms that are inexperienced in the biomedical space, they have hopefully learned that growth cannot compensate for flaws in science or technology. If they continue to invest in biomedical, they will be much more ca…

"For firms that are inexperienced in the biomedical space, they have hopefully learned that growth cannot compensate for flaws in science or technology. If they continue to invest in biomedical, they will be much more careful in their DD; or perhaps they lose their appetite for biomedical and leave entirely." Exactly, which will result in essentially a return to the status quo. The investors who understand the comple…

An interesting question for me is, what will be the effect on wellness startups doing things like Fitbit or Soylent? I have no idea.

Re: A Marriage Gone Bad: Walgreens Struggles to Shake Off Theranos

#64

Post by woah » Fri, Apr 22, 2016, 4:48 PM UTC

1024core wrote: post #11

A part of me feels sad for Theranos. I wanted them and Elizabeth to succeed; more the latter, actually. If she had succeeded (I still hold out hope), she would have been a terrific role model for young women everywhere.

I think that attitudes like this are part of what allowed Holmes to con so many people for so long. As well-intentioned as it is, your hope for the young women of tech to be inspired has nothing to do with the veracity of Theranos' claims. A lot of the breathless fluff pieces on Theranos focused on Holme's gender instead of the technology.

Re: A Marriage Gone Bad: Walgreens Struggles to Shake Off Theranos

#65

Post by striking » Fri, Apr 22, 2016, 4:53 PM UTC

Fede_V wrote: post #61

hvs wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, there's a segment of society that will extrapolate the high-profile failure of one woman to reaffirm their misguided belief that her gender was part of the reason for her failure.

That's probably the most unfortunate thing about the entire situation. Well that, and the people working for Theranos who will face the backlash.

Is gender really the most unfortunate thing about the entire situation?

The mischaracterization of women sucks, don't get me wrong.

But there are so many other things wrong going on here that this comment really confused me.

Re: A Marriage Gone Bad: Walgreens Struggles to Shake Off Theranos

#66

Post by Mz » Fri, Apr 22, 2016, 4:54 PM UTC

1024core wrote: post #62

JamilD wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A role model for young women with parents coming from old money, with both Beltway and VC connections? It'll be great to have another role model in tech for young women, but incidents like this do more harm than good…

So was Bill Gates. That didn't stop people from idolizing him.

Except, Bill Gates actually brought a revolutionary product to market. In contrast, Holmes has spent years claiming she was going to do that and reveling in being a media darling while doing a lot of really questionable things.

Re: A Marriage Gone Bad: Walgreens Struggles to Shake Off Theranos

#67

Post by oldmanjay » Fri, Apr 22, 2016, 4:59 PM UTC

softawre wrote: post #60

raverbashing wrote: post #56

I believe all prick exams need some level of squeezing ( did one a couple of weeks ago, giving a couple of samples from the same prick) it didn't hurt too much though

[offtopic] - And this is why I love HN. Maturity. Imagine this thread on reddit.

this story just isn't very interesting for the meme-and-reference-humor-loving HN crowd. I assure you, they are around, working hard to destroy what relevance we strive to maintain.

Re: A Marriage Gone Bad: Walgreens Struggles to Shake Off Theranos

#68

Post by pessimizer » Fri, Apr 22, 2016, 5:05 PM UTC

forgetsusername wrote: post #58

endymi0n wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, her and Marissa Mayer make for some very visible, very unfortunate anti role models recently. Certainly doesn't help for paving the way for more women to join the top ranks.

> very unfortunate anti role models recently I think there's a huge difference between the two. Sure, Ms. Meyer floundered running a big (struggling) company, especially when so much was made about "Female CEO!" But really, her "failure" is pretty average when it comes to corporate executive misadventure; nothing she did makes her unworthy of being a role-model. Ms. Holmes, on the other hand, may have overseen a mass…

Yeah, Marissa Meyer was hired to save a dinosaur from the tarpit, and has done a mediocre job at it. She isn't even that bad - she's no Carly Fiorina - and I've never seen her ethics challenged.

I'd go as far as to say that if Meyer at least manages to unwind Yahoo gracefully, she may move on to greater success in the future in a similar position.

Re: A Marriage Gone Bad: Walgreens Struggles to Shake Off Theranos

#69

Post by stanfordkid » Fri, Apr 22, 2016, 5:09 PM UTC

I've been calling this for ages since I saw Elizabeth Holmes speak at the Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders seminar at Stanford 5 or 6 years ago. Huge vision, entitled dismissal of incumbents, and a story that is just a little bit too perfect. Following your dreams is cool, but only when they aren't delusions.

Re: A Marriage Gone Bad: Walgreens Struggles to Shake Off Theranos

#70

Post by whyenot » Fri, Apr 22, 2016, 5:11 PM UTC

1024core wrote: post #11

A part of me feels sad for Theranos. I wanted them and Elizabeth to succeed; more the latter, actually. If she had succeeded (I still hold out hope), she would have been a terrific role model for young women everywhere.

I think she would be an absolutely terrible role model. She is a college dropout who built her company on marketing and unicorn farts without taking the time, or apparently even caring whether the science is right or wrong. We don't need role models like that. That's not something to aspire to. We already have lots of great role models in medicine and the biological sciences, including women with an entrepreneurial bent like Anne Wojcicki.