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The funny thing is, this startup isn't that young. It's 12 years old. Someone basically gave a completely inexperienced founder tens of millions of dollars and over a decade to run an R&D lab.

hundreds of millions.

Oh wow good point, that's never happened before... /sarcasm To your point, longevity does not equal success. Twelve would make it 2003.. Before Facebook. Before the huge boom. Twelve years is a long time to be a "startup".

These things come and go in cycles. Back in 1980 there was a startup that raised $230 million. That was, as they say, "real money" back in the day.

Great pedigree. But, eventually, poof, gone. Nothing much to show for all the investment.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trilogy_Systems

Wait, but how the founder became a billionaire? I thought they are generating huge profit already...

Make believe billionaire, based on Theranos having a $9 billion valuation, based on $90 million in VC investments.

Cambrian Genomics?

Halcyon Molecular?

Both them and Theranos suffered the suicide of their technical lead ...