(09-06-2018, 04:00 PM)2006alum Wrote: It's worth noting that almost everyone in Silicon Valley stayed far, far away from Theranos. Only one valley VC fund invested, and even then, not much. Most of her money came from people outside the valley who would accept her ridiculous terms regarding lack of access to verifiable results (including, notably, a of immense proportions investment from Walgreens). And her board was full of DC bigwigs who lent authority but absolutely no credibility for the specific industry. If anything, the lesson is in the arrogance of valley outsiders to think any seller of magical beans can make them grow fruit. I always, always, thought it sounded way too good to be true.
I hear this self-defense a lot and think it's not terribly convincing, for a few reasons:
1) it's not true that valley outsiders were the sole (or preponderance) investors. Larry Ellison and Draper put money into it. And BlueCross BlueShield's in-house investors (who are actually reasonably well-regarded) put money in too.
2) This is, to be fair, a subjective thing. You might think this represents not a brobdingnagian slice of the Silicon Valley elite, and I suppose as a semantic matter I might concede. But I would argue this makes the Valley
look even worse. Because Valley insiders were definitely complicit in hyping the company. Tons and tons of insiders either invited Holmes to speak at their events or feted her with awards. Several insiders, including Marc Andreessen, reflexively defended her when the first wave of negative press coverage came; and in fact some of them indulged in bizarre conspiracy theories (that the coverage was somehow prompted by her "enemies") rather than treating it as a good-faith disagreement.
Defending her to the hilt while refusing to put their money at stake looks like trying to put one over the rubes. So, to be honest, I think it's better for the Valley if story 1) (that actually many of their investors were conned, like all the rest) is true.
Anyway the government has filed a superseding indictment on Holmes and Balwani, which doesn't look good.