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Theranos had great PR. You have to understand that most tech news places question the substance of most press releases. Especially if they are medical. For ex
by KaiserPro 8y ago
Theranos had great PR.
You have to understand that most tech news places question the substance of most press releases. Especially if they are medical.
For example, no-one questions AirBnB's core buisness model: listing holiday lets. There is literally nothing+ new about airBnB. Uber is the same, its a taxi service that is subsidising users.
Babylon health is another example, which has yet to really break mainstream news.
They have run trails for replacing NHS 111, They make a lot of noise about using AI and other such bollocks, but actually its a decision tree with a nice natural language system infront.
What they don't say in the blurb is that its less effective than the current telephone system. Parts of it are deemed unsafe by their own medical staff, and there is no rigid medical testing to prove it's safety.
None of this matters yet because its an app, and it has "AI".
- hotdog97 8y agoThe truth is that in the alternative timeline where Theranos had a male founder they would never gotten their initial founding. Holmes and Theranos rode the perfect wave built by the media being thirsty for a young, smart (blonde) female. It's so obvious when you look at it in hindsight. Hilariously, even after the total collapse this topic is often taboo. I can't help but feel for sorry for the young women out there creating actually useful innovations.
- detaro 8y agoTheranos's first funding was in 2004, it had already raised $90M at $1B valuation in 2010, and started filling its board with defense bigwigs in 2011. What media wave had happened at that point? From what I've seen, serious media coverage appeared in 2013, when they left "stealth mode" with the promise of the droplet testing, almost a decade after the initial investment.
- hotdog97 8y agoI was misinformed (or remembered incorrectly) about the founding/media blitz sequencing. Thanks for informing me.
- ahel 8y agoThen if you're interested in being less wrong, I suggest you to question why you were believing what you said, keeping in mind it was wrong.
- atlantic 8y agoI think he is referring to the media wave promoting women in entrepreneurship and in STEM courses and jobs, not to the media wave promoting this specific company.