Theranos

[Biffer]

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... SApp_Other

Founder of Theranos, Elizabeth Holmes, convicted on four counts of fraud. Promised their tech would detect hundreds of conditions from a simple blood test, but could only do ten or twelve. To me, this demonstrates a huge flaw in Silicon Valley investment thinking. There’s a significant element of that startup culture that thinks that investing in tech will solve every problem and the bigger the problem, just chuckled more money at it and you’ll solve it. Need it done quicker? Fine, Chuck more money at it. Problem is they don’t differentiate between tech and science.

I’ve experienced this myself talking to small space companies, around high resolution images from orbit. There’s a hard physical limit on how fine a detail you can resolve for a particular size of telescope / camera. I’ve spoken to companies who want to do high resolution imaging from very small satellites and you can see in their faces that they can’t get their head round there being a limit - they think it’s a tech problem, and enough investment will find a solution (it won’t). I think that’s what has happened here. They’ve assumed because they can detect some health issues from a drop of blood, so they’ll be able to find markers for hundreds more, and develop them quickly by chucking cash at it. And come up against hard science blocks, which just ain’t going to go away. They’ve bought into their own hype, dug a hole for themselves and then kept digging when it was going wrong, in a blind faith that the solution was just around the corner (probably in the face of scientists telling them it wasn’t going to work).

[Uncle fester]

Silicon Valley motto is "fake it till you make it".

When that meets fraud regulations, problems are going to ensue.

[shaggy]

Silicon Valley motto is "fake it till you make it".

When that meets fraud regulations, problems are going to ensue.

https://m.imdb.com/title/tt10981408/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk

[fishfoodie]

And Irish techies should remember Steorn; how they kept conning VC people, showed how thick people can be.

https://fora.ie/steorn-shaun-mccarthy-l ... 3-Nov2016/

[tc27]

The whole thing is incredible - a story of how far confidence alone can get you.

Biffer - I don't think the issue is with trying to solve a problem considered insurmountable with cash its simply the poor governance of the company and lack of due diligence by investors. Safeways and Walgreens threw money at Homes with no evidence it worked whilst she eliminated anyone inside Theranos who would have challenged her.

[JM2K6]

Proof that the people who threw money at her are as fucking stupid as everyone else.

[Kawazaki]

I’ve experienced this myself talking to small space companies, around high resolution images from orbit. There’s a hard physical limit on how fine a detail you can resolve for a particular size of telescope / camera.

You're talking out of your hole mate. I've seen Enemy of the State and even back then you could zoom in from satellite cameras and read the label on your coat. And that was made in the 1990s.

[Kawazaki]

Proof that the people who threw money at her are as fucking stupid as everyone else.

Rupert Murdoch lost $120m apparently. Not the best enemy to have.

[PCPhil]

Proof that the people who threw money at her are as fucking stupid as everyone else.

Rupert Murdoch lost $120m apparently. Not the best enemy to have.

Ooo. Thank you. Made my day that has.

[Calculon]

Even the lowest paid medical lab assistant could have told all those investors her idea was pure fantasy.

[Uncle fester]

Proof that the people who threw money at her are as fucking stupid as everyone else.

Rich people are surprisingly dim. If the system wasn't rigged in their favour, it would be much easier for smarter poor people to take their place.