This is about Elizabeth Holmes and the fraud that was Theranos, which had "supposedly" developed a device the size of a laser printer that could do 200+ blood tests using only a pin***** of blood. The truly amazing thing is all the smart people she duped. One investor - last name Draper -said that since her grandfather was an entrepenuer and another uncle I believe was a doctor she had to know what she was talking about! I highly recommend it.
The Inventor: Out for Blood In Silicon Valley, - HBO doc
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Last: 5 yr ago by mazzag
Oooooh I've been wanting to watch this
I think this was a recent 20/20 episode.
Edit: yep..
https://abc.go.com/shows/2020/episode-guide/2019-03/15-the-dropout
Edit: yep..
https://abc.go.com/shows/2020/episode-guide/2019-03/15-the-dropout
Unbelievable how long she made these insane claims with absolutely no data to back it up and people just continued to throw money at her.
I haven't seen this yet, but I've been following this for a while. At one point she was the youngest billionaire or youngest female billionaire in the world based upon the company valuation. This lady defrauded some very rich and powerful people, not to mention she put lives at risk. Created a device that never did what people were told it did. Tough to think she doesn't spend a very long time in prison. I plan on watching this when I can squeeze it in, believe it was done by the same guy that did Going Clear.
She was a Clinton donor and was supposed to host a fundraiser for her foundation. She should probably watch her back over the next few years.
Watched the documentary last night, that fact you could completely see white around her iris while she talked should have been a dead giveaway to people she frauded. Super crazy narcissistic female
Watched the documentary last night, that fact you could completely see white around her iris while she talked should have been a dead giveaway to people she frauded. Super crazy narcissistic female
I watched this last night. It was good but I thought dragged out a little too long on the front end and then didn't spend enough time on the crash at the end.
That said, her strategy was very interesting as far as impressing and aligning herself with very powerful people, while also being careful that they were the types of folks with little to no scientific background. Easy to fool. Easy to intimidate potential threats. She just reeled them in and then was ready to scare the hell out of anyone that might pose any kind of threat.
That said, her strategy was very interesting as far as impressing and aligning herself with very powerful people, while also being careful that they were the types of folks with little to no scientific background. Easy to fool. Easy to intimidate potential threats. She just reeled them in and then was ready to scare the hell out of anyone that might pose any kind of threat.
The absolute first thing that struck me was her voice. Incredibly deep for a young woman like her. Very off-putting. I've since read that many people believe she was faking the deep tone in order to be taken more seriously.
She definitely exaggerated it. It's deeper in some interviews and higher in others. When all of those are put together in a short amount of time like this documentary did, the variation really stands out.
Also, LOL at all of the stock footage of her just walking around.
Also, LOL at all of the stock footage of her just walking around.
To me this documentary is more about the insanity of investing in Silicon Valley, some investors just throw money at the new technology, sometimes is works out and in this case it went horribly wrong.
What was so weird about this one and what set it apart from all the other crazy companies (juicero being my favorite) was that this one was literally impossible. Not shipping bags of dog food by FedEx and being profitable kind of impossible but violating the laws of thermodynamics kind of impossible.
She has always just had the look of a complete psycho...
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So we will never be able to do home blood tests of this scope or the science behind her particular test kit was impossible?Duncan Idaho said:
What was so weird about this one and what set it apart from all the other crazy companies (juicero being my favorite) was that this one was literally impossible. Not shipping bags of dog food by FedEx and being profitable kind of impossible but violating the laws of thermodynamics kind of impossible.
It would be sweet if one day you could run a widely encompassing blood panel from your home in a matter of minutes.
The Fear of Missing Out duped tons of very smart people.
I read where Jennifer Lawrence will portray her in an upcoming movie about this.Boo Weekley said:
She has always just had the look of a complete psycho...
Sunny Balwani seems a huge turd, after reading the book I just wanted to punch him in the face.
Boo Weekley said:So we will never be able to do home blood tests of this scope or the science behind her particular test kit was impossible?Duncan Idaho said:
What was so weird about this one and what set it apart from all the other crazy companies (juicero being my favorite) was that this one was literally impossible. Not shipping bags of dog food by FedEx and being profitable kind of impossible but violating the laws of thermodynamics kind of impossible.
It would be sweet if one day you could run a widely encompassing blood panel from your home in a matter of minutes.
Not the scope of tests (over 200) she said she could run on the amount of blood she said she needed (a single drop).
He seemed especially dorky when they were all trying to dance to "You Can't Touch This" during their little party celebrating the FDA approval of one of their tests. That part really cracked me up.bonfarr said:
Sunny Balwani seems a huge turd, after reading the book I just wanted to punch him in the face.
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/03/05/eu_startups_no_ai/
The above and all the ICOs that received crazy funding makes you realize how often this happens in VC.
I want to watch this at some point, but sadly not that surprising. Makes me wish I had no morals and a few VC connections.
The above and all the ICOs that received crazy funding makes you realize how often this happens in VC.
I want to watch this at some point, but sadly not that surprising. Makes me wish I had no morals and a few VC connections.
I still don't understand ICOs.
DG-Ag said:He seemed especially dorky when they were all trying to dance to "You Can't Touch This" during their little party celebrating the FDA approval of one of their tests. That part really cracked me up.bonfarr said:
Sunny Balwani seems a huge turd, after reading the book I just wanted to punch him in the face.
I haven't seen it yet but imagine it looks something like this
Boo Weekley said:So we will never be able to do home blood tests of this scope or the science behind her particular test kit was impossible?Duncan Idaho said:
What was so weird about this one and what set it apart from all the other crazy companies (juicero being my favorite) was that this one was literally impossible. Not shipping bags of dog food by FedEx and being profitable kind of impossible but violating the laws of thermodynamics kind of impossible.
It would be sweet if one day you could run a widely encompassing blood panel from your home in a matter of minutes.
I roll my eyes when she says that getting immediate info concerning your health is a basic human right. Why, because she saiys so?
Her voice sounds like Will Ferrell's impression of Janet Reno.
Duncan Idaho said:
I still don't understand ICOs.
Neither do some of the VC folks that backed some of those companies that were nothing but vapor ware!
But it got people to buy crypto tokens for things that will never happen, making companies instant money.
Disclaimer: I am not an ICO expert.
How did so many people find her captivating and want to follow her no matter what? Everything about her made me physically uncomfortable. Her voice, bug eyes, face, and her mannerisms were all very off putting.
Watched it last night.... disappointed that they didn't try to paint George Shultz as more of a villain.
Here initial patent shows how ****ing ridiculous our patent process is now. How are you able to get a patent for something you haven't made, much less something that can't be made?
Her first patent was essentially a stoned college kids idea. It wasn't anymore ridiculous that "you what would be cool? Since all medicine is basically made of a few elements like carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen, we should figure out a way to make a tiny machine the size of a bandaid that could make any medicine you need from your dead skin cells and the air."
Here initial patent shows how ****ing ridiculous our patent process is now. How are you able to get a patent for something you haven't made, much less something that can't be made?
Her first patent was essentially a stoned college kids idea. It wasn't anymore ridiculous that "you what would be cool? Since all medicine is basically made of a few elements like carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen, we should figure out a way to make a tiny machine the size of a bandaid that could make any medicine you need from your dead skin cells and the air."
I'll watch this. I've listened to the podcast about her "The Drop Out." It's absolutely insane. It's like a female version of that Fyre Fest guy. For the record, the podcast talks about her changing her voice. They interview people that knew her before and those she worked with about when she accidentally talked in her normal voice.
Yeah, my wife brought up Fyre Fest early on while we were watchingQuote:
It's like a female version of that Fyre Fest guy.
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My wife and I caught the middle to end of this. Agree that they didn't spend enough time on the crash, but considering where it stands right now I guess they sort of leave it hanging. You could tell how much of a scam it was by how they were bullying the young people that finally couldn't take it anymore and called bull*****
The voice was hilarious and I said those hair dos looked like bad wigs they use in high school plays. PT Barnum sure was smart.
The voice was hilarious and I said those hair dos looked like bad wigs they use in high school plays. PT Barnum sure was smart.
Carreyrou's book names the engineer that hacked the Siemen's machine to test the finger stick blood samples that gave out so many false results, he was the #4 man at Theranos. That guy knew exactly what he was doing and that it was a fraud and he should go to jail with Holmes and Balwani.
I haven't finished the doc yet, but I'm curious if things could have worked for them if they limited the scope of the tests they ran. Instead of 200 tests, just have a small cheap machine that runs 10 similar tests. Then maybe a different machine that runs a different set of tests.
I'm actually not surprised people threw money at her. She throws out a lot of buzz words and slick marketing, and what I've found in corporate IT is there are a lot of people who fall in love with whatever the new buzz word is and invest tons of money into it. Then when they find out things aren't as easy as they thought, instead of cutting and moving on, they throw more money at it because they've already invested so much. It's amazing to me how much money is wasted in IT.
I'm actually not surprised people threw money at her. She throws out a lot of buzz words and slick marketing, and what I've found in corporate IT is there are a lot of people who fall in love with whatever the new buzz word is and invest tons of money into it. Then when they find out things aren't as easy as they thought, instead of cutting and moving on, they throw more money at it because they've already invested so much. It's amazing to me how much money is wasted in IT.
AustinAg2K said:
I haven't finished the doc yet, but I'm curious if things could have worked for them if they limited the scope of the tests they ran. Instead of 200 tests, just have a small cheap machine that runs 10 similar tests. Then maybe a different machine that runs a different set of tests.
I'm actually not surprised people threw money at her. She throws out a lot of buzz words and slick marketing, and what I've found in corporate IT is there are a lot of people who fall in love with whatever the new buzz word is and invest tons of money into it. Then when they find out things aren't as easy as they thought, instead of cutting and moving on, they throw more money at it because they've already invested so much. It's amazing to me how much money is wasted in IT.
They never solved the problem of getting an accurate blood test using a single drop of blood which was the.promise the company was founded on and the medical professionals quoted in the book say there was no fix for that. They could have made a machine that could conduct a few blood tests using a venous blood draw but that would have been pointless
I really hope she's faking the voice thing. It's lower than mine.
The whole Steve Jobs black turtleneck thing, too. I mean, come on.
The whole Steve Jobs black turtleneck thing, too. I mean, come on.
I was anticipating this one quite a bit after following the initial story but wasn't really thrilled about the doc. I felt like they let Holmes off kind of easy painting her as a zealot who had lost touch with reality and believed her lie because of her devotion to the cause
That wasn't the case at all. Her and her boyfriend were well aware of what they were doing and fully cognizant of what laws they were breaking and who they were screwing over. They also glossed over a lot of the details of the terrible work environment that Theranos became. I know they covered it, but there needed to be more specific examples because her and that boyfriend of hers basically created a hellscape of a workplace.
One of the interesting things about this story is how she was able to get by all of these supposedly smart people without any data and proof. They briefly touch on this in the doc, but what they didn't do is get into why she was able to do it.
When Theranos was at its peak and before Holmes was exposed as being a fraud, everyone in Tech, Tech Media, investment publications, and Silicon Valley were falling all over her for being the FIRST self made female billionaire. This fact in itself allowed her to operate with impunity and rarely subjected her to questioning. In a sense, she was a very protected class in probably the WOKEST place in the world. Someone mentioned all the stock footage of her walking around, etc, and that's because she was likely being followed by crews wanting to document her every move. Add to the fact that she apparently loved the attention and an instant monster was created
That wasn't the case at all. Her and her boyfriend were well aware of what they were doing and fully cognizant of what laws they were breaking and who they were screwing over. They also glossed over a lot of the details of the terrible work environment that Theranos became. I know they covered it, but there needed to be more specific examples because her and that boyfriend of hers basically created a hellscape of a workplace.
One of the interesting things about this story is how she was able to get by all of these supposedly smart people without any data and proof. They briefly touch on this in the doc, but what they didn't do is get into why she was able to do it.
When Theranos was at its peak and before Holmes was exposed as being a fraud, everyone in Tech, Tech Media, investment publications, and Silicon Valley were falling all over her for being the FIRST self made female billionaire. This fact in itself allowed her to operate with impunity and rarely subjected her to questioning. In a sense, she was a very protected class in probably the WOKEST place in the world. Someone mentioned all the stock footage of her walking around, etc, and that's because she was likely being followed by crews wanting to document her every move. Add to the fact that she apparently loved the attention and an instant monster was created
Love it when a chick is the bad guy! #equality
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