Hacker News Reader

Comment by sbardle | Hacker News Reader

I don't think it was intended to be a scam. The founder raised too much capital on the back of massively inflated expectations. They couldn't deliver (didn't one of the technical team commit suicide in despair over this?) and rather than doing the honest thing and returning the capital, they've ended up creating a Kafkaesque web of shadows and lies. The fundamental issue is overfunding, and it is not limited to this one company, which is why we're in bubble territory once again.

View on HN

But they never had the tech! This wasn't a genius scientist who got investment to productonize an idea. It was a BS company set up by the parents and their uberwealthy/connected friends, with the kid as the media friendly face, like a teen pop star, or like when someone with a journo friend promotes the "my 8 year old wrote an app!" gimmick every year or so.

They streamrolled a bluff into billon dollar deals, either as a complete scam, or hoping to quietly buy the tech from a real inventor eventually.

Yeah, I'm not particularly well-versed in this, but I'm inclined to agree. As others have mentioned they were probably just believing there own hype.

There is the question though of at what point did they realize what they were attempting was pushing up against some fundamental limits and just wasn't going to work? Did they think they were going to pivot?

At some point a 'web of shadows and lies' would have to be construed as a scam, wouldn't it? Even if that wasn't the initial intent.

I tend to agree. From what I've read about her (and not in the puff-pieces at the height of the Theranos hype) she was indeed a much smarter than average young lady - but probably the team was not able to deliver on the original vision/ idea, and rather than admit defeat, they tried to cling on it for as long as possible.

No doubt she is a bright well-educated driven person. Zuckerberg-esque, no doubt. But zuck pulled it off because Facebook didn't need any next-gen tech to launch and get big-- just elbow grease and investment/marketing connections. You can't wing it to launch a new blood diagnostics.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com