Theranos is so huge in some people's minds because it billed itself first as a Silicon Valley style tech company, so people associated with Silicon Valley style

Theranos is so huge in some people's minds because it billed itself first as a Silicon Valley style tech company, so people associated with Silicon Valley style tech companies are well aware of it. There have been tons of companies doing things far more similar to Theranos' claims especially in the liquid biopsy space, without any negative association, partly because they bill themselves as biotech companies, and partly because their tech actually works. The main reason Theranos was able to get away with what they claimed, was people in the industry knew what they claimed was approximately possible, just hadn't yet been done with the tech of the day. 11 years later, that tech has continuously improved. Biotech companies with interesting ideas about how to approach liquid biopsy and personalized medicine don't get extra scrutiny because of Theranos. The exception is if they are going for funding to people more familiar with Theranos than with biotech. Which is itself as much of a red flag as one needs.