The only serious investor in Theranos was Tim Draper, who gave Holmes about $200k in initial seed funding, and largely because she was a friend of the family wh

The only serious investor in Theranos was Tim Draper, who gave Holmes about $200k in initial seed funding, and largely because she was a friend of the family who Draper has known since she was a kid. Holmes went around to every major Silocon valley VC firm and every life sciences VC firm, but they did their due diligence and after consulting with experts every one of them said "I think I'll pass on this one." Following that initial seed funding from DFJ, all of Theranos' early stage funding came from fly-by-night wannabe venture capitalists. A123 systems definitely does not fall into that category.