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Did Theranos (and Elizabeth Holmes) looked like efficient and practical startup? You bet!!!

• MattGaiser 5y ago
  I don't see how a startup like Theranos, real or not, could succeed without venture capital. You can't iterate your way to a medical device and casually fail along the way with paying customers.
  • HWR_14 5y ago
    Ironically, didn't Theranos casually fail along the way with paying customers? I would imagine that VC would be required to build the machines, but I'm not sure how many rounds. It seems like if their tech worked, it should have required far less than what they raised to hit sustainable revenues. Maybe 10%?
• zwieback 5y ago
  Not to a lot of experts, though. I remember sitting in a conference room at the time discussing options of entering this market and people were basically "we don't know how they can possibly do this, it's either some unknown technology magic or a scam". So it shouldn't really have looked efficient or practical to anyone, more like a PowerBall lottery.
• HWR_14 5y ago
  I thought that Theranos fell on the other side (flashy unicorns) from efficient and practical in the author's thesis.