Support NeoGAF

[l2ounD]

The concept doesn't pass hold up against a modicum of scrutiny because of the amount of blood drawn from the patients.

Thats the best part. How did it get this far to actually selling the product to consumers without it actually working. The amount of incompetence is amazing, no one made sure it worked before it got to the hands of consumers. That is crazy. And thats not all on the crazy eye lady or sunny guy, thats multiple levels of people fucking up and following the leader.

 

[Schattenjäger]

still would

 

[thefool]

This sham was sketchy from the start. Some university student inventing a tiny blood test module that could work wonders every other huge biotech company couldnt do in 100 years.

Even possibly a bigger sham were companies involved. The tests were supposedly outsourced to other blood testing companies and secretly earmarked as done by her device. Any company involved should be tried too to see if they were in on it, or they did it as just normal business with another medical company and didnt know.

I genuinely believe she thought she could achieve it tho. That's what's so unique in this sham, she built a farce and tried her best to create something groundbreaking. But the opposing timelines of having to develop a product vs having to showcase a product lead to an absolute fuckery of lies and deceit.

 

[EviLore]

Her childbirth coinciding directly with when her trial was scheduled to begin can't be a coincidence, right? Surely a responsible adult would avoid getting pregnant right before she might go to prison, but a nefarious strategic thinker would intentionally have a newborn in hand at the moment of the trial as leverage to avoid prison time.

 

[poodaddy]

Her childbirth coinciding directly with when her trial was scheduled to begin can't be a coincidence, right? Surely a responsible adult would avoid getting pregnant right before she might go to prison, but a nefarious strategic thinker would intentionally have a newborn in hand at the moment of the trial as leverage to avoid prison time.

What chaps my ass most is that it will probably aid in securing her some empathy and sympathy. She didn't have that boy to love him, she had him to have a powerful tool for emotional manipulation at the ready.

That boy's sadly gonna grow up to probably be a monster too. Bad parents beget bad children beget bad adults beget bad parents, and the cycle begins again.

 

[SF Kosmo]

If you like Elizabeth Holmes, also check out Liz Charmichael. A lot of similarities between the two.

Also Billy McFarland from Fyre Fraud. He isn't as much of an exercise in persona as Holmes or Carmichael, because he doesn't need to, but another one of these dudes who is just always hustling, always bullshitting.

 

[Sakura]

I don't understand why people do this sort of thing. Surely you realise you will be caught eventually right?

 

[Ballthyrm]

Get your facts checked, her machines were routinely misdiagnosing samples and putting out false readings. Imagine you getting tested for a potentially lethal disease and not catching it in time because the machine they did the test was rubbish.

Do the tiniest bit of research before posting drivel.

Both of you, I know what she is accused of. I know people died, and I read Bad Blood BTW.
I was just highlighting the fact that she is one of the few cases of white collar crime that actually got prosecuted because of the money implication.

How many more examples do we have where the guilty walk free ?
The Sackler family being directly involved in the opoid crisis that killed 50K of your fellow Americans comes to mind.

How many generic Drugs have been marked up overnight with little to no consequence ?
Martin Shkreli got locked up because of a security fraud (stole from rich people, again), not for potentially killing people by making the drug innacessible.

I'm not naive, I think she should go to prison for endangering people and selling a fake miracle.
But she won't going to prison because of that, she is setting an example for other of her kind that you don't screw over rich people and not suffer consequence.

 

[12Goblins]

That blood diagnosis machine, if it ever worked, would be a massively useful invention.

And it came exactly at the time that technology seemed to be going at the speed of light. The first smartphones came out which combined a TV, computer, camera, MP3 player, GPS and a dozen other gadgets in one. Why would it not be possible to combine all types of blood analysis into one box as well ?

Even after reading so much about this Holmes is still a bit of a mystery. There seems to be no financial motive, just a delusional idea that making this magical box was doable if she just pushed hard enough, even if it drove at least one person to suicide. What is one death and a pile of lies compared to the thousands saved by the Theranos machine ?

what's strange to me is she didn't even seem to care what was going on in the lab and the people tasked with making the Edison work. from the HBO doc I got the impression she just kept them in the basement, told them to figure it out, shut up, and kept the door closed. she seemed to have no interest in trying to actually figure out a way to make this work...

 

[wipeout364]

Say what you want but I like Elizabeth Holmes, she is so unreal like a Super Villain. She would fit right into a Marvel Movie as head of AIM.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Runs in the family. Her dad was VP of Enron. And her mom is a politician. WIki.

Elizabeth Holmes was born February 3, 1984, in Washington, D.C.[10] Her father, Christian Rasmus Holmes IV, was a vice president at Enron, an energy company that later went bankrupt after an accounting fraud scandal. Later he held executive positions in government agencies such as USAID, the EPA, and USTDA.[11][12] Her mother, Noel Anne (Daoust), worked as a Congressional committee staffer.[13][10]

Holmes attended St. John's School in Houston.[14] During high school, she was interested in computer programming and says she started her first business selling C++ compilers to Chinese universities.[15] Her parents had arranged Mandarin Chinese home tutoring, and partway through high school, Holmes began attending Stanford University's summer Mandarin program.[16][10] In 2002, Holmes attended Stanford, where she studied chemical engineering and worked as a student researcher and laboratory assistant in the School of Engineering.[13]

After the end of her freshman year, Holmes worked in a laboratory at the Genome Institute of Singapore and tested for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-1) through the collection of blood samples with syringes.[15][17] She filed her first patent application on a wearable drug-delivery patch in 2003.[18][19] In March 2004, she dropped out of Stanford's School of Engineering and used her tuition money as seed funding for a consumer healthcare technology company.[13][20]

 

[dcll]

How could such a scam make it so far, it would seem many had to know and be in on it. I don’t know anything about these Vc companies but how could they all be fooled so easily

 

[T8SC]

 

[EviLore]

How could such a scam make it so far, it would seem many had to know and be in on it. I don’t know anything about these Vc companies but how could they all be fooled so easily

With software ideas, if you can think it up, you can build it. VCs bet on highly driven and confident individuals they think can push hard enough to get it done, with magnetic personalities to draw in the necessary talent. Historically, this produces tech startup success.

Con artists and cult leaders have similar attributes. Also, in medical science, you can’t drop out after your freshman year at Stanford and change the world. You don’t know anything yet. Everything Holmes did was calculated to present as the next Jobs or Gates or Zuck, only it’s all a facade that can’t hold up to scrutiny.

 

[A.Romero]

What if she uses the Batman voice in bed though?

Go on...

 

[Xyphie]

How could such a scam make it so far, it would seem many had to know and be in on it. I don’t know anything about these Vc companies but how could they all be fooled so easily

U.S. liberal media has huge culpability because of their desperate search for the story of "the female founder".

 

[GymWolf]

She looks like the female version of the facebook guy...

 

[pauljeremiah]

I really hate that mix of that song, the album mix is way way better.

 

[DeepBreath87]

Looks like a young Hilary Clinton. Not genuine and buggy eyes.

That is legitimately unsettling. There’s this sort of underlying desperation to it. Like she is the kind of person would be a murderer under different circumstances.

 

[Blade2.0]

That kid is going to be one fucked up person.

 

[DeepBreath87]

That kid is going to be one fucked up person.

Do you think she had the baby purely to help her with her trial and potential sentencing? She’s the kind of person who might do something like that.

 

[Blade2.0]

Do you think she had the baby purely to help her with her trial and potential sentencing? She’s the kind of person who might do something like that.

I certainly wouldn't put it past her.

 

[Aesius]

The concept doesn't pass hold up against a modicum of scrutiny because of the amount of blood drawn from the patients.

I HATE blood draws, so when articles about Theranos first started popping up, I thought it sounded like a godsend. I remember mentioning it to my girlfriend (now wife), and she immediately told me that it was impossible. At the time she was a research assistant at a university, and some of her work involved testing blood samples. She said that it was simply impossible to properly analyze that small of an amount of blood. At the time I just assumed that there was some incredible breakthrough technology behind it and that the old way of testing blood was soon to be obsolete, but nope. It was legitimately impossible. It's incredible that it got as far as it did on such an inherently flawed concept.

 

[Arimer]

IF she wouldn't have got busted I would have seen this lady becoming a politician. She obviously knew how to manipulate and was comfortable with it.

 

[bender]

I HATE blood draws, so when articles about Theranos first started popping up, I thought it sounded like a godsend. I remember mentioning it to my girlfriend (now wife), and she immediately told me that it was impossible. At the time she was a research assistant at a university, and some of her work involved testing blood samples. She said that it was simply impossible to properly analyze that small of an amount of blood. At the time I just assumed that there was some incredible breakthrough technology behind it and that the old way of testing blood was soon to be obsolete, but nope. It was legitimately impossible. It's incredible that it got as far as it did on such an inherently flawed concept.

Reading and watching videos about the Theranos saga taught me a few things. Beyond all the crazy science fiction that Holmes brought upon the world, I never realized how widespread people's genuine fear over giving blood was. I can see how Holmes could fleece tech investors but the fact that her "nanotainer' and bullshit testing made it to the public is equal parts incredible and incomprehensible. The crazy bitch should spend her life in prison for that alone, the billions of investor money be damned. No one with any type of scientific background would think that is possible. Then again she got a patent for patch that would draw/test blood and administer antibiotics automatically.

Thats the best part. How did it get this far to actually selling the product to consumers without it actually working. The amount of incompetence is amazing, no one made sure it worked before it got to the hands of consumers. That is crazy. And thats not all on the crazy eye lady or sunny guy, thats multiple levels of people fucking up and following the leader.

Holmes and her partner (business/love) did some mob lawyer type tactics and buttoned up a lot of people with NDAs. There is probably more guilt to go around than just those two, but they bare the lion share as they mislead investment and business partners and omitted telling them what their engineers and scientists relayed to them (this shit doesn't and can't work).

 

[poppabk]

I HATE blood draws, so when articles about Theranos first started popping up, I thought it sounded like a godsend. I remember mentioning it to my girlfriend (now wife), and she immediately told me that it was impossible. At the time she was a research assistant at a university, and some of her work involved testing blood samples. She said that it was simply impossible to properly analyze that small of an amount of blood. At the time I just assumed that there was some incredible breakthrough technology behind it and that the old way of testing blood was soon to be obsolete, but nope. It was legitimately impossible. It's incredible that it got as far as it did on such an inherently flawed concept.

Microfluidics is a thing and could theoretically deliver something close to what Theranos was promising. Elizabeth Holmes was just a sociopath who was basically Talented Mr Ripleying Steve Jobs. She could do the surface stuff like dropping out of college because 'it was holding her back' and appearing to be a wunderkind entrepreneur with a vision, or yelling or firing people on a whim. She just didn't have the actual accumen to develop anything but the surface stuff. She also pulled this in a highly regulated space where you can't have something sort of work.

 

[Kreen101]

Legitimately one of the creepiest humans on the planet, with that dialed-in wide-eyed smile.

I think she’s hot.

 

[EviLore]

I think she’s hot.

Well, you're not alone.

 

[Rickyiez]

I always wonder what type of wound a person like this must have experienced to be so broken...assuming no other physical/chemical mental issue.

Brilliant woman though , if only she put her talent into good cause .

 

[Cyberpunkd]

She also pulled this in a highly regulated space where you can't have something sort of work.

And she did it the same way as WeWork scammed investors - by pretending to be a tech company, not a medical company.

 

[jufonuk]

What if she uses the Batman voice in bed though?

 

[dave_d]

Microfluidics is a thing and could theoretically deliver something close to what Theranos was promising. Elizabeth Holmes was just a sociopath who was basically Talented Mr Ripleying Steve Jobs. She could do the surface stuff like dropping out of college because 'it was holding her back' and appearing to be a wunderkind entrepreneur with a vision, or yelling or firing people on a whim. She just didn't have the actual accumen to develop anything but the surface stuff. She also pulled this in a highly regulated space where you can't have something sort of work.

I wondered if most investors went into this with the attitude of "Sure it can't all be true but if just one or two of these things pan out it's going to be totally worth it." She did approach this like tech firms do didn't she? (Where they promise the moon and the stars, you just hope they can at least give you moon and star shaped marshmallows.)

 

[underwater]

This was surely a scam hidden behind another scam, there is more going on than meets the eye.

The idea that all these experienced billionaire investors did not do basic due diligence is absurd. And there are spooks and ex-military guys everywhere you look. Holmes was a patsy or a useful idiot to something much deeper than a basic investment fraud.

 

[SidViscous]

Most of the "entrepreneurs" I've met got to where they are via the "fake it til you make it" route, most have no real invention or genius of their own and simply trick their way up the power ladder in the hopes they can find/hire someone who can eventually deliver on their promise before they get called out on it. She gets compared with Steve Job's and it's ironic now people are back peddling because she's a fraud, not realising that probably makes her even more like Steve Jobs, only she didn't find her Wozniak.

She said she had tech she didn't, but she also had a team of smart people actively working on researching that tech; so I'm going to be an idiot and say if the investors turned a blind eye for long enough she may have delivered and been hailed a success. Steve Job's lied his ass off too in the early days, Bill Gates lied and would bring his own mum to business meetings saying she was an investor, Musk lied about battery tech that didn't exist yet, the list goes on... she just wasn't as good as playing the game by the sound of it.

 

[Deleted member 1159]

Most of the "entrepreneurs" I've met got to where they are via the "fake it til you make it" route, most have no real invention or genius of their own and simply trick their way up the power ladder in the hopes they can find/hire someone who can eventually deliver on their promise before they get called out on it. She gets compared with Steve Job's and it's ironic now people are back peddling because she's a fraud, not realising that probably makes her even more like Steve Jobs, only she didn't find her Wozniak.

She said she had tech she didn't, but she also had a team of smart people actively working on researching that tech; so I'm going to be an idiot and say if the investors turned a blind eye for long enough she may have delivered and been hailed a success. Steve Job's lied his ass off too in the early days, Bill Gates lied and would bring his own mum to business meetings saying she was an investor, Musk lied about battery tech that didn't exist yet, the list goes on... she just wasn't as good as playing the game by the sound of it.

Spot on

 

[joedan]

'The boyfriend made her do it' gender defense


"The disgraced founder of the blood-testing startup Theranos plans to blame emotional and sexual abuse by her former boyfriend, also a senior executive at the company, at her federal fraud trial beginning next week, according to legal papers published on Saturday.

Elizabeth Holmes, 37, says she is not responsible for decisions she made as head of the company because her mind was impaired by “manipulation” from Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, 56, the chief operating officer of Theranos who faces a separate fraud trial next year."

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/disgraced-theranos-founder-blame-abusive-161732571.html

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Most of the "entrepreneurs" I've met got to where they are via the "fake it til you make it" route, most have no real invention or genius of their own and simply trick their way up the power ladder in the hopes they can find/hire someone who can eventually deliver on their promise before they get called out on it. She gets compared with Steve Job's and it's ironic now people are back peddling because she's a fraud, not realising that probably makes her even more like Steve Jobs, only she didn't find her Wozniak.

She said she had tech she didn't, but she also had a team of smart people actively working on researching that tech; so I'm going to be an idiot and say if the investors turned a blind eye for long enough she may have delivered and been hailed a success. Steve Job's lied his ass off too in the early days, Bill Gates lied and would bring his own mum to business meetings saying she was an investor, Musk lied about battery tech that didn't exist yet, the list goes on... she just wasn't as good as playing the game by the sound of it.

Totally.

Most businesses fail. But the media typically only tells about billion dollar success stories or giant corporations going broke. All the small and mom and pop businesses failing after a couple years nobody cares about and zero media would give them attention.

The best thing an entrepreneur can do is not even have a solid business plan from the start. It's to get lucky hyping up a product or faddy trend and hope everyone jumps in with VC money with zero repercussions or personal money tied into it.

The toughest business to have seems to involve tightwad bank loans with interest tied to personal collateral.

 

[EviLore]

'The boyfriend made her do it' gender defense


"The disgraced founder of the blood-testing startup Theranos plans to blame emotional and sexual abuse by her former boyfriend, also a senior executive at the company, at her federal fraud trial beginning next week, according to legal papers published on Saturday.

Elizabeth Holmes, 37, says she is not responsible for decisions she made as head of the company because her mind was impaired by “manipulation” from Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, 56, the chief operating officer of Theranos who faces a separate fraud trial next year."

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/disgraced-theranos-founder-blame-abusive-161732571.html

Elizabeth Holmes is such a courageous young woman for surviving countless years of becoming a billionaire tech founder/CEO manipulation.

 

[CrankyJay™]

I’ve been binge watching Suits so now I’m a legal professional.

 

[EviLore]

"
“This pattern of abuse and coercive control continued over the approximately decade-long duration of Ms Holmes and Mr Balwani’s relationship, including during the period of the charged conspiracies,” the filing states.

Citing the syndrome known as intimate partner abuse, the lawyers claim: “Mr Balwani was controlling with Ms Holmes, that Ms Holmes was isolated by Mr Balwani, that Mr Balwani was combative with Ms Holmes, and that Mr Balwani was often physically present in Ms Holmes’ office, all tactics that … are abuse tactics used by abusers.”

Holmes has claimed in previous filings that Balwani was sexually abusive, “withdrew affection if she displeased him, controlled what she ate, how she dressed, how much money she could spend, who she could interact with”. He also threw “hard, sharp objects at her” and controlled her sleep, lawyers have said.

But this is the first declaration by Holmes’s legal team that she plans to use the alleged abuse as a defense of her actions, claiming Balwani was “dominating her and erasing her capacity to make decisions”. As a result, the attorneys claim, it affected Holmes’s ability “to deceive her victims”.
"

 

[StreetsofBeige]

'The boyfriend made her do it' gender defense


"The disgraced founder of the blood-testing startup Theranos plans to blame emotional and sexual abuse by her former boyfriend, also a senior executive at the company, at her federal fraud trial beginning next week, according to legal papers published on Saturday.

Elizabeth Holmes, 37, says she is not responsible for decisions she made as head of the company because her mind was impaired by “manipulation” from Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, 56, the chief operating officer of Theranos who faces a separate fraud trial next year."

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/disgraced-theranos-founder-blame-abusive-161732571.html

These two were humping in bed? LOL

 

[EviLore]

These two were humping in bed? LOL

Not only that, but one of her complaints in her legal filing is that he withdrew his affection if she displeased him.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Not only that, but one of her complaints in her legal filing is that he withdrew his affection if she displeased him.

LOL. Maybe he got tired of telling her to stop staring at him with buggy eyes.

But good on him for scoring Holmes whose 20 years younger. Not sure when their hook up started, but it could had been when he was 50 and she was 30. Holmes has drugged up zombie eyes and no doubt she's not the type of person any guy would want to hang out with and have her nag you to death, but she's actually decent looking.

 

[EviLore]

The father of her newborn:

 

[strange headache]

Thunderfoot did a nice recap of that whole debacle:



It's fascinating how far this has gone enabled by media hype, investor greed and wishful thinking.

 

[Airbus Jr]

These two were humping in bed? LOL

She looks young and pretty for 37

Anyway its very unfortunate that she took this path hopefully she can redeemed herself

 

[MastAndo]

Elizabeth Holmes awaiting trial;

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Anyway its very unfortunate that she took this path hopefully she can redeemed herself

Yes, while married to a dumb millionaire chad that was lucky to be born into a rich family she can ink a multimillion dollar book and TV series deal telling everyone how she was swept away by corrupting and insidious web of Silicon Valley. Let’s press F for respect for Elizabeth ‘I was a victim’ Holmes.

 

[Rest]

Thats the best part. How did it get this far to actually selling the product to consumers without it actually working. The amount of incompetence is amazing, no one made sure it worked before it got to the hands of consumers. That is crazy. And thats not all on the crazy eye lady or sunny guy, thats multiple levels of people fucking up and following the leader.

Ever seen the movie "Boiler Room" with Giovanni Ribisi and Vin Diesel? You throw a stream of bullshit at people so fast they can't think about it and tell them they have to give you the money NOW. It works on a lot of people.

 

[Torrent of Pork]

Ehh, the only difference between her and any random politician is that she's going to jail.