Theranos Agrees to Pay $4.65M in Arizona Refunds
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Theranos Agrees to Pay $4.65M in Arizona Refunds
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Re: Theranos Agrees to Pay $4.65M in Arizona Refunds
#2The story of Theranos makes me think about where the "great filter" lines for startups are.
My prior company - who I was with from ~20 people to the current 300+ - has been going through some shakeups that make me wonder. This adds to my thinking.
I'd have thought that both were past those lines - hundreds of people, multiple offices? Seems like it'd be solid at that point.
The common factor is that both have yet to release their "flagship" product, although they've released products.
Then you can think about small products with small teams - Sidekiq, Cards Against Humanity - that achieve substantial success.
It seems like this is the most telling "filter" - did you release your core product?
Thoughts?
Re: Theranos Agrees to Pay $4.65M in Arizona Refunds
#3I remember thinking Theranos/Elizabeth Holmes was too good to be true from the very first time I read about it, no lie. Was it really plausible that this young woman could come up with an idea that the whole medical industry had missed? I can't quite articulate why, but it just didn't seem like medicine would be ripe for disruption in the same way as other industries that we've seen turned upside down. It takes decades for advances in cancer etc. Had Theranos really managed to stumble on something the entrenched players had missed? Such a strange story, so much money apparently squandered, and yet the zombie still stumbles on. How long before it's finally put out of its misery?!
Re: Theranos Agrees to Pay $4.65M in Arizona Refunds
#4The biggest takeaway from Theranos is that investigative Journalism is not dead. John Careryu (sp?) single handedly dug up the truth in a non disparaging factual manner and went up against a team of ruthless lawyers threatening to utterly destroy him, the Journal, and his source. That source was a 24 year old hero whose parents put up their house as collateral just to help their son do the right thing when he had no monetary gain from it. After learning so much about the bullshit Theranos did, every nail that pushes it further into the ground has given me a justice euphoria high. I'll be following this until it's end
Re: Theranos Agrees to Pay $4.65M in Arizona Refunds
#5To my disgust, the biggest thing most people seem to take away from it is "Yup, that's what happens when a woman is in charge of a business."
I'm a woman. I am fine with her burning. But, geez, I hate the idea that there is lava-like splash back spattering all other women in the world who are trying to be taken seriously.
Re: Theranos Agrees to Pay $4.65M in Arizona Refunds
#6The biggest takeaway from Theranos is that investigative Journalism is not dead. John Careryu (sp?) single handedly dug up the truth in a non disparaging factual manner and went up against a team of ruthless lawyers threatening to utterly destroy him, the Journal, and his source. That source was a 24 year old hero whose parents put up their house as collateral just to help their son do the right thing when he had no…
That's John Carreyrou of The Wall Street Journal's investigative reporting team. [1]
Re: Theranos Agrees to Pay $4.65M in Arizona Refunds
#7To my disgust, the biggest thing most people seem to take away from it is "Yup, that's what happens when a woman is in charge of a business." I'm a woman. I am fine with her burning. But, geez, I hate the idea that there is lava-like splash back spattering all other women in the world who are trying to be taken seriously.
Really? I'm very surprised anyone would blame malfeasance on anatomy.
Re: Theranos Agrees to Pay $4.65M in Arizona Refunds
#8Could we have a summary for people like me who are not familiar with them?
What's the case on Theranos? what did they do and sale? What happened?
Re: Theranos Agrees to Pay $4.65M in Arizona Refunds
#9The story of Theranos makes me think about where the "great filter" lines for startups are. My prior company - who I was with from ~20 people to the current 300+ - has been going through some shakeups that make me wonder. This adds to my thinking. I'd have thought that both were past those lines - hundreds of people, multiple offices? Seems like it'd be solid at that point. The common factor is that both have yet to…
It kinds of depends what your goals are: if your goals are to make a card game? sure, a small team should suffice.
But if your goals are to make rockets ? well having 500+ employees and having your product fail, as it happen to spaceX in 2008, maybe not so bad ?
And it could be that for theranos, in order to sell laboratory services(assuming their competitors bundle stuff), they have to offer the whole service array , meaning thousands of tests, so it takes a lot of work for their core product - altough they did already have product based on the same tech for pharma r&d.
Re: Theranos Agrees to Pay $4.65M in Arizona Refunds
#10The story of Theranos makes me think about where the "great filter" lines for startups are. My prior company - who I was with from ~20 people to the current 300+ - has been going through some shakeups that make me wonder. This adds to my thinking. I'd have thought that both were past those lines - hundreds of people, multiple offices? Seems like it'd be solid at that point. The common factor is that both have yet to…
You could say Theranos' core product was "released" - they were doing blood testing. Maybe badly. Maybe clandestinely on other equipment. But as far as the rest of the world was concerned it was "working".
Plus you have to define what "core product" means. Is it the bit that makes money? A lot of startups have slotted the money making bit in later and gone alright; others never really could figure that out.
And... relatively boring companies with real business can transform themselves into "house of cards built on lies" type businesses pretty easily, too. Think about Enron, or any financial firm that went heavily in on the subprime mortgages.