{"id":83993,"date":"2015-12-31T10:11:30","date_gmt":"2015-12-31T18:11:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=83993"},"modified":"2015-12-31T16:10:21","modified_gmt":"2016-01-01T00:10:21","slug":"is-theranos-a-girl-powered-scam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=83993","title":{"rendered":"Is Theranos A Girl-Powered Scam?"},"content":{"rendered":"

From ROK<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\nElizabeth Holmes was supposed to be the grrl powered answer to Steve Jobs, black turtleneck and all. At the encouragement of a professor, she dropped out of Stanford University at 19 years old to continue the startup that she (wait for it\u2026) founded in her dorm room. She opened offices in Palo Alto, garnered high profile board members, heavy hitting financial backers, Ted conference appearances and eager media cheer leading as the dollars rolled in and she became America\u2019s youngest female billionaire.<\/p>\n

Her stratospheric rise was a shot across the bow to the male dominated tech industry (the medical tech industry, at least) demonstrating that yes, women can do it too and you\u2019d better be ready for us.<\/p>\n

The revolutionary product at the core of Theranos (a company name beget from \u201ctherapy\u201d and \u201cdiagnosis\u201d) was a proprietary blood test method that only required drops of blood through a pin prick at the pharmacy versus big needles and vials full of blood, a doctors visit and a lab order. Results would be delivered within a few hours, versus days, be more affordable, less intimidating and accessible to the masses.<\/p>\n

This was the disruptive answer to the $75 billion dollar a year market dominated by lab testing giants Quest Diagnostics and Laboratory Corporation of America (LabCorp.) A deal was struck with Walgreens to offer Theranos tests in select locations, with more on the way.<\/p>\n

Then, right before the IPO, the balloon popped. In October, a series of reports emerged ranging from FDA allegations of uncleared medical devices to employee allegations that Theranos isn\u2019t using the technology they claim to have. What happened?<\/p>\n

Reality check: she quits school at 19 years old to run a medical technology startup in several areas where PhDs spend decades researching just one aspect of each, and we are supposed to accept the fact that she\u2019s got it all figured out, just like that? Got it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

SocialMatter<\/a>: “Jobs and Musk were proven innovators who found a new career phase and new pitch for their products. Holmes was an unknown quantity. Holmes\u2019 firm was not proving itself through its work but had collected a lot of interested and interesting allies and investors. No one bothered to look behind the curtain. Elizabeth Holmes was just too perfect for the media to stop. Holmes could have been their Steve Jobs with breasts. She could have been their Sheryl Sandberg with actual tech credentials. instead, Holmes is just another mirage offered up by the media to disappear in the lens of reality.”<\/p>\n

Comments to Steve Sailer<\/a>:<\/p>\n

* Apparently, her top technical guy was some experienced scientist in the field, who was an early hire in the company and was responsible for actually getting the \u201crevolutionary new technology\u201d built while she was going around celebrity cocktail-parties as the PR person armed with her reality-distortion field.<\/p>\n

According to the WSJ article, a couple of years ago that top technical guy left a note saying \u201cIt Just Doesn\u2019t Work!\u201d and committed suicide. Naturally, none of the venture-capital firms paid any attention to that minor detail, and continued pouring in their mega-oceans of new funding.<\/p>\n

* October article in the WSJ:<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2005, Ms. Holmes hired Ian Gibbons, a British biochemist who had researched systems to handle and process tiny quantities of fluids. His collaboration with other Theranos scientists produced 23 patents, according to records filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Ms. Holmes is listed as a co-inventor on 19 of the patents.<\/p>\n

The patents show how Ms. Holmes\u2019s original idea morphed into the company\u2019s business model. But progress was slow. Dr. Gibbons \u201ctold me nothing was working,\u201d says his widow, Rochelle.<\/p>\n

In May 2013, Dr. Gibbons committed suicide. Theranos\u2019s Ms. King says the scientist \u201cwas frequently absent from work in the last years of his life, due to health and other problems.\u201d Theranos disputes the claim that its technology was failing.<\/p>\n

After Dr. Gibbons\u2019s widow spoke to a Journal reporter, a lawyer representing Theranos sent her a letter threatening to sue her if she continued to make \u201cfalse statements\u201d about Ms. Holmes and disclose confidential information. Ms. Gibbons owns Theranos shares that she inherited from her husband.\u201d<\/p>\n

Geeze, this company is supposedly worth $9 billion!<\/p>\n

* The problems of working with \u201cnano\u201d blood samples have been known for years (basically capillary sourced blood isn\u2019t chemically the same as blood from a vein), but it\u2019s a little counter intuitive to an engineering school drop-out like Betsy. Any competent Laboratory Medicine physician could have told them they were doomed years ago. Also the medical testing field is so regulated there\u2019s no real money to be made.<\/p>\n

* \u201cOk, who is this young wunderkind related to?\u201d<\/p>\n

Good blood, good bone old money folks<\/a>. Fleischman\u2019s Yeast money from way back. Her father works for the government in foreign aid and has also worked as a high ranking staffer in the energy industry. Her mother was a Congressional aid in defense and foreign affairs before starting a family. Not super important people themselves, but extremely respectable.<\/p>\n

* I like to show this TED Talk parody to kids to hit home the ideas-are-like-belly buttons thing, and to take these Snake Oil Change Agents with a grain of salt.<\/p>\n