3 ms·
She claimed to be celibate in her twenties due to her devotion to her company. Reality: She was living with a much older man who invested in the company. I str
by DoreenMichele 3y ago
She claimed to be celibate in her twenties due to her devotion to her company. Reality: She was living with a much older man who invested in the company.
I strongly suspect this is not how male founders typically operate.
I also still believe her gender was a barrier to her getting meaningful feedback, an opinion that generally draws hatred -- and never mind that it's the opinion of a woman wondering So, how does a woman founder make a successful company?
("Asking for a friend" -- by which I mean me, of course.)
- edmundsauto 3y agoI suspect that being a woman was both a help and a hindrance. Ultimately, it hindered her because she didn't get the reality checks that an unattractive person would have received - or when she got them, she didn't have to listen because there was a fawning group of VCs vying for her attention. However, I also suspect most people would choose to have easy access to money due to network and attractiveness, even if it meant not having to accept the truth. I don't think there are many lessons for anyone from Elizabeth Holmes' story, woman or man; founder or not.
- DoreenMichele 3y agoI suspect that being a woman was both a help and a hindrance. The company went from a valuation of $10 billion to zero overnight and she's been sentenced to 11 years in prison for fraud. As far as I can tell, her gender in no way "helped" anything good. It likely helped grow this debacle into one of much larger proportions than it otherwise likely would have been. And when I talk about that, I usually get dismissed out of hand, not taken seriously as a woman going "So, let's say you're a woman -- as I am -- and want to actually start a real business. Just how does one not end up with this kind of debacle if my thoughts on how and why it went so badly have any merit?"