This article shows how much the Wall Street Journal really knocked the Theranos story out of the park. It's remarkable that non of the investors or regulators paid half as much of attention.<p>> One of the only journalists who seemed unimpressed by this narrative was John Carreyrou, a recalcitrant health-care reporter from The Wall Street Journal. Carreyrou came away from The New Yorker story surprised by Theranos’s secrecy—such behavior was to be expected at a tech company but not a medical operation. Moreover, he was also struck by Holmes’s limited ability to explain how it all worked.<p>Theranos also sounds similar to a cult, which may explain why her staff never figured out that they were a fake company:<p>> After he wrapped up, the leaders of Theranos stood before their employees and surveyed the room. Then a chant erupted. “Fuck you . . .,” employees began yelling in unison, “Carreyrou.” It began to grow louder still. “Fuck you, Carreyrou!” Soon men and women in lab coats, and programmers in T-shirts and jeans, joined in. They were chanting with fervor: “Fuck you, Carreyrou!,” they cried out. “Fuck you, Carreyrou! Fuck. You. Carrey-rou!”
Money quote:<p>"While Silicon Valley is responsible for some truly astounding companies, its business dealings can also replicate one big confidence game in which entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and the tech media pretend to vet one another while, in reality, functioning as cogs in a machine that is designed to not question anything—and buoy one another all along the way. ... The financial rewards speak for themselves. Silicon Valley, which is 50 square miles, has created more wealth than any place in human history. In the end, it isn’t in anyone’s interest to call bullshit."
Overall it's an interesting article, but I have a quibble with this paragraph about how it actually backed by much Silicon Valley:<p>"Silicon Valley, once so taken by Holmes, has turned its back, too. Countless investors have been quick to point out that they did not invest in the company—that much of its money came from the relatively somnolent worlds of mutual funds, which often accrue the savings of pensioners and retirees; private equity; and smaller venture-capital operations on the East Coast. In the end, one of the only Valley V.C. shops that actually invested in Theranos was Draper Fisher Jurvetson."<p>Crunchbase shows that on top of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, there's ATA ventures in Redwood City, as well as Larry Ellison's firm (Tako) and his personal trust. Depending on how you read that, that's 4 of 6 or 3 of 5 major backers coming out of Silicon Valley. On what basis is Bilton making his claim?
The Theranos story reminds me of an episode of "The Big Bang Theory". Sheldon gets sent to jail. Why? Why do you think, for doing the same crap he always does but this time to a judge.<p>Theranos followed a standard SV script, sell the vision, create a barely working product. get people to use it, iterate.<p>You just can't do that in a regulated space especially when you can put people's lives at risk.