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> “I realized that I could have just as well been looking into the eyes of a Steve Jobs or a Bill Gates.” > Though Theranos is largely unknown even in Silicon
by Procrastes 12y ago
> “I realized that I could have just as well been looking into the eyes of a Steve Jobs or a Bill Gates.”
> Though Theranos is largely unknown even in Silicon Valley, that is about to change.
> Precisely how Theranos accomplishes all these amazing feats is a trade secret.
> The analyzers look like large desktop computer towers. Holmes declines to explain how they work, or even allow them to be photographed, citing the need to protect trade secrets. The company manufactures them at an unmarked facility I toured in a research park across the South Bay from Palo Alto, in Newark, Calif.
> the single most accomplished board in U.S. corporate history. It includes former U.S. Secretary of State, Treasury, and Labor George Shultz; former Secretary of Defense Bill Perry; former Secretary of State and National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger; and former U.S. Senators Sam Nunn and Bill Frist
> In a rare if not unprecedented rout this past March, the patent holders unconditionally surrendered midtrial, stipulating to the invalidity of their own patent. As a kicker they agreed–though the presiding judge would have been powerless to order such a thing himself–to bring no additional patent suits against Theranos for five years.
> retired U.S. Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis, explaining why he signed up last fall as another of Theranos’s strikingly illustrious outside directors. Mattis had stepped down just months earlier as commander of the U.S. Central Command–the chief of U.S. military operations in the Middle East and Central Asia
... zombie
... apocalypse
- JonnieCache 12y agoThe whole article was pretty weird. Anyone care to speculate what's going on here?
- ChuckMcM 12y agoPretty clear, they are getting significant traction in a market dominated by 'old school' companies and players. Perhaps their PR department wanted to get out front with the narrative :-). Having friends that work around the FDA's influence it is a very politicized space. She clearly built her board such that she could counter those threats.
- JonnieCache 12y agoAh, the FDA, that makes sense. There's a certain hallucinogenic quality to the prose that, when combined with the Kissenger namedrop, made me kinda nervous. I guess that's just because I don't generally read fortune magazine.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- jonnathanson 12y agoCynical interpretation: well-funded med-tech company hires an incredibly well-connected board and presumably a great PR firm, and lands an epic puff piece in Fortune. Uncynical interpretation: well-funded med-tech company quietly grows to become an inspiring success, thanks to game-changing technology and a brilliant founder. I see both of these interpretations as compatible. In fact, #1 can often follow from #2. In either or both cases, this seems like the kind of company we should root for: using new approaches to technology to solve big problems. As another commenter in this thread put it: this is a lot more than just "Yo."
- Killah911 12y agoI had a smile on my face while reading this article. Regardless of the PR behind the article, it's certainly refreshing to see a startup like this. I'm rooting for them. Medtech needs game changing technologies!
- jonnathanson 12y agoAgreed. I say that as a tech geek and as someone who, unfortunately, is a frequent and regular blood-test patient.
- Procrastes 12y agoWild guess? Someone at DOD or DOS has a simulation that really has them spooked and wants to get civilian testing coverage in place fast, so they've thrown support behind Holmes who has a way to do it. Zombie jokes aside, it's really a pretty reasonable first step for pandemic resilience. Or Holmes is an alien who wants to inject everyone with vegan mind control spiders. Either way it's likely good for humanity in the long run.
- mpyne 12y ago> Someone at DOD or DOS has a simulation that really has them spooked and wants to get civilian testing coverage NORTHCOM maybe (they're the geographic combatant commander in charge of DSCA planning for pandemic influenza). But despite the horror show portrayed about the military in all the zombie/pandemic movies, the military wants badly to avoid anything to do with this mission at all, so it wouldn't surprise me if they're trying to get contractors to do the heavy lifting for response planning.
- ElComradio 12y agoWhat is a near-certainty is that the timing of this piece is not random, especially considering that board composition.
- rayiner 12y agoI skimmed through the first part, but based on your comment I went back and read the article. > As a bonus, board meetings are also attended by the company’s de facto legal adviser at large, trial lawyer David Boies. Boies represented the DOJ in the Microsoft antitrust proceedings and Al Gore in Bush v. Gore. What an odd cast for a startup board. I wonder what connects all these people, other than all being high-profile.
- jonnathanson 12y ago"What an odd cast for a startup board. I wonder what connects all these people, other than all being high-profile." Government relations. Influence with policymakers and thought leaders. Makes total sense for a med-tech company. This is an industry where "non-market factors" (government regulation, threat of competitive lobbying or lawsuits by incumbents, etc.) play an enormous role. If I were starting a med-tech company that threatens a $60B+ industry with hundreds of millions of dollars in lobbying efforts every year, I'd love to have a board featuring policy elites, ex-government officials, and a legendary trial lawyer who's argued successfully in front of the Supreme Court on multiple occasions. The only person she's missing here is Bill Gates. (And it would be quite interesting to see him and Boies on the same side after all these years.)
- rayiner 12y agoI know its all highly secret, but how awesome would it be to read Bill Gates's take on the technology?
- gohrt 12y agoWhy would that be interesting? Boies is an attorney, he doesn't display his own point of view, he is (one of the best in the world) professional presenter of clients' point of view. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Boies#Notable_cases http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Boies#Notable_cases
- jonnathanson 12y ago"Interesting" meaning it would be interesting to see them in a room together. Meaning fun. I'm not suggesting Boies was anything but neutral in the case against MSFT. Maybe reading too much from my "on the same side" comment, or else maybe I phrased that too ambiguously.
- sujeetsr 12y agoTheranos == Umbrella Corporation?
- dotrob 12y ago"Theranos" reads very similar to "thanatos" to me, which is unfortunate. I had to force myself to read it as "thERaNos."
- Procrastes 12y agoThat struck me too. Hope it's not an inside joke.
- 31reasons 12y agoThis is getting more interesting.
- w1ntermute 12y agoHere's how Theranos got all those high profile board members: http://fortune.com/2014/06/12/theranos-board-directors/ http://fortune.com/2014/06/12/theranos-board-directors/ TL;DR: founder met/convinced one well-connected DC insider in 2011, and he brought all his buddies along for the ride.
- larrys 12y agoAlso noting that with the exception of Frist a quick read shows no connection to healthcare. As others noted these board members appear for another purpose such as government issues or attracting others by the halo of their importance.
- w1ntermute 12y ago> with the exception of Frist a quick read shows no connection to healthcare Well, there's also Shultz, who was "a director at biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences," according to this article. But you're right that those people are mainly on the board for their influence in Washington. The importance of that when taking on an entrenched and heavily regulated industry can't be overstated.