4 ms·

Yes, clearly that is exactly what I'm saying. Intelligent CEO == scam. It takes more than intelligence to start a Biotech company. You need money, equipment, s

by learc83 12y ago

Yes, clearly that is exactly what I'm saying. Intelligent CEO == scam. It takes more than intelligence to start a Biotech company. You need money, equipment, skill, and usually experience. Medical breakthroughs usually require years of research and skills that are acquired working on a PhD. I'm not saying it's not possible for a 19 year old to make a world changing discovery, but when no one will say what exactly that world changing discovery is, I get a bit skeptical.

jacquesm 12y ago
Actually, there does not need to be a 'discovery' here, merely fantastic execution on existing technology. It's a bit like combining a bunch of stuff that already exists in a novel way and then playing that for all it is worth. This does nothing to belittle the accomplishment here, it's fairly amazing if what they've done is as accurate as they claim it is but from what I've been reading over the years all the pieces were already there, it's just that nobody bothered to combine them like this and the execute the hell out of it. Classic disruptive startup, very impressive if you dig down a bit further.
- walterbell 12y ago
  Impressive that a founding student (not the professor who sponsored the research) has retained 50% equity at a $9B valuation. The history of those negotiations will hopefully become a Harvard or Stanford Business School case study.
  - rasz_pl 12y ago
    Her family connections might had something to do with it. Its easy to screw poor kid, but Oil executive family that regularly has Secretary of State, a former Secretary of Defense, and a former Senator dinner guests? Better think twice.
- learc83 12y ago
  >Classic disruptive startup, I don't think you can call this a classic disruptive startup. Look at the board members; they are some of those most powerful people on the planet, and yet the founder still maintains 51%. Either she is insanely charismatic or she discovered something earth shattering (either a novel discovery, or a novel use of existing discoveries).
  - jacquesm 12y ago
    This is not a new company and that board was not in place from day 1. If you've got the money, you too can have a board like that.
    - learc83 12y ago
      Yes, but why do they have so much money? So a 19 year old walks up to an investor and says: "Give me $16 million. I've got an idea for a new way to do blood tests. It doesn't work yet, and I've got less than a year's experience in the field. But I'm wicked smart because I learned Mandarin as a child, and my professor believes in me. Oh and by the way I'm going to maintain control of my company and never want to give up more than 50%" That surely didn't happen. She must have something that at least looks very impressive to have negotiated those terms, but what I don't understand is why no one is talking about what that is. They have patents to protect them. Why aren't they releasing peer reviewed studies?
      - jacquesm 12y ago
        They have so much money because there is lots of money to be made in this field and they have a pretty compelling story. Also, those investors have likely done their due diligence and liked what they saw.
        XorNot 12y ago
        Money attracts money. This is perhaps the long-tail of the investment insanity which happened over the past decade and culminated in the GFC for the finance sector. It somewhat stands to reason that the fiscal fervor of the times has perhaps just fallen into an area where the payoff period is typically longer. There's a very good reason to be skeptical when the most anyone can say about the company is the composition of it's board - noteworthy, but I wonder how often that was used to pitch to each of its members. It's worth rereading the story of Enron when parsing things like this - there's a lot of parallels.

by learc83 12y ago

jacquesm 12y ago

Actually, there does not need to be a 'discovery' here, merely fantastic execution on existing technology. It's a bit like combining a bunch of stuff that already exists in a novel way and then playing that for all it is worth. This does nothing to belittle the accomplishment here, it's fairly amazing if what they've done is as accurate as they claim it is but from what I've been reading over the years all the pieces were already there, it's just that nobody bothered to combine them like this and the execute the hell out of it. Classic disruptive startup, very impressive if you dig down a bit further.

walterbell 12y ago
Impressive that a founding student (not the professor who sponsored the research) has retained 50% equity at a $9B valuation. The history of those negotiations will hopefully become a Harvard or Stanford Business School case study.
- rasz_pl 12y ago
  Her family connections might had something to do with it. Its easy to screw poor kid, but Oil executive family that regularly has Secretary of State, a former Secretary of Defense, and a former Senator dinner guests? Better think twice.
learc83 12y ago
>Classic disruptive startup, I don't think you can call this a classic disruptive startup. Look at the board members; they are some of those most powerful people on the planet, and yet the founder still maintains 51%. Either she is insanely charismatic or she discovered something earth shattering (either a novel discovery, or a novel use of existing discoveries).
- jacquesm 12y ago
  This is not a new company and that board was not in place from day 1. If you've got the money, you too can have a board like that.
  - learc83 12y ago
    Yes, but why do they have so much money? So a 19 year old walks up to an investor and says: "Give me $16 million. I've got an idea for a new way to do blood tests. It doesn't work yet, and I've got less than a year's experience in the field. But I'm wicked smart because I learned Mandarin as a child, and my professor believes in me. Oh and by the way I'm going to maintain control of my company and never want to give up more than 50%" That surely didn't happen. She must have something that at least looks very impressive to have negotiated those terms, but what I don't understand is why no one is talking about what that is. They have patents to protect them. Why aren't they releasing peer reviewed studies?
    - jacquesm 12y ago
      They have so much money because there is lots of money to be made in this field and they have a pretty compelling story. Also, those investors have likely done their due diligence and liked what they saw.
      - XorNot 12y ago
        Money attracts money. This is perhaps the long-tail of the investment insanity which happened over the past decade and culminated in the GFC for the finance sector. It somewhat stands to reason that the fiscal fervor of the times has perhaps just fallen into an area where the payoff period is typically longer. There's a very good reason to be skeptical when the most anyone can say about the company is the composition of it's board - noteworthy, but I wonder how often that was used to pitch to each of its members. It's worth rereading the story of Enron when parsing things like this - there's a lot of parallels.