
Theranos Lays Off Most of Its Remaining Workforce - dcgudeman
https://www.wsj.com/articles/theranos-lays-off-most-of-its-remaining-workforce-1523382373
======
Balgair
Often, we look at the negative in what Ms. Holmes wrought (rightfully so).

Instead, for a sec, look at one positive point in what Tyler Shultz brought
forth through his heroic actions against Theranos[0]. His story showed us what
SV is and what it can be. Though never guaranteed, he has a happy ending as he
recently launched Flux Biosciences in 2017[1].

Remember: Be like Tyler Shultz.

[0][https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/11/explosive-new-
detail...](https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/11/explosive-new-details-
emerge-in-lawsuit-against-theranos)

[1][https://www.forbes.com/sites/elliekincaid/2017/10/03/after-b...](https://www.forbes.com/sites/elliekincaid/2017/10/03/after-
blowing-the-whistle-on-theranos-tyler-shultz-is-going-back-into-diagnostic-
testing/2/#399c8cc4fd5f)

~~~
cft
I would love to be like Tyler Shultz but my grandfather is not George
Shultz...

~~~
Balgair
I hear this a lot about Tyler. It just shows that the commentor never read the
linked articles or did any research. Tyler and his Grandfather are not on
speaking terms due to the whistle blowing and likely never will be. Tyler very
much forgave any inheritance and was likely to be bankrupted due to his heroic
actions, yet he did them anyways because it was the right thing to do. Maybe
his grandfather's position got him into the job in the first place, but Tyler
very much was facing a life of endless poverty for his whistle blowing.

~~~
epmaybe
"Endless poverty" Wealth is relative, sure, but this seems a rather strong
choice of words for what becomes of whistleblowers.

------
alecco
I still can't believe how Elizabeth Holmes got away with just a slap in the
wrist. Is it because the board was full of connected people? Or because it's a
successful woman CEO story? Either way, it's a disgrace. Sociopaths will pick
this signal as a boost of confidence.

~~~
fragsworth
No question this Theranos situation would have inspired a whole new wave of
startup con artistry, but I think all those people are currently peddling
shitcoins.

When the shitcoin bubble completely falls apart (a process which it may be
going through right now), we might see a bunch of Theranoses popping up.

~~~
dkersten
> a process which it may be going through right now

Eh, I dunno. I'm not a big cryptocurrency fan, but that doesn't really sound
like the current reality. It may have lost a lot of its December peak value,
but the value of cryptocurrencies is still about where it was in November and
has been stable there for a month or two. That's still a lot higher than the
first ten months of 2017 (and previous years), so _" completely falls apart"_
seems a bit strong.

~~~
fragsworth
You've mistaken what I mean when I say "shitcoin bubble". I'm talking about
the thousands of ICOs that are utter garbage. At some point that has to fall
apart.

Eventually you burn enough people and there's nobody left to scam, or
governments step in to regulate it. There's a reason you don't see stock
peddling scams anymore.

~~~
dkersten
Ah, ok, fair enough. It seems that I did misunderstand. Thanks for clarifying.

------
Bud
Wait. They still had a workforce? What the heck are they working on? How are
they still extant? The entire operation was revealed to be a world-historical
fraud! How is this company still in operation on any level? I don't get it.

~~~
uniformlyrandom
AFAIR, they have switched focus to some other bullshit idea called miniLab:

> “We will return our undivided attention to our miniLab platform,” writes
> Holmes of the new device she unveiled in early August at the American
> Association for Clinical Chemistry’s convention in Philadelphia. She added
> that “our ultimate goal is to commercialize miniaturized, automated
> laboratories capable of small-volume sample testing, with an emphasis on
> vulnerable patient populations, including oncology, pediatrics, and
> intensive care.”

[http://fortune.com/2016/10/05/theranos-shuts-down-
clinics/](http://fortune.com/2016/10/05/theranos-shuts-down-clinics/)

~~~
blhack
What's the opposite of "nobody every got fired for choosing IBM"?

This woman needs to steer far, far away from anything in the medical field for
a LONG time. If she does end up back in that field, she needs to be way behind
the scenes. Not presenting at a conference.

~~~
Bud
She's actually banned from being an officer of ANY company.

Associated Press, March 14, 2018:

"Under an agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday,
Holmes is barred from serving as an officer or director of a public company
for 10 years. The SEC said it will pursue its case against the president of
the company, Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani, in federal district court in the Northern
District of California."

~~~
dragonwriter
> She's actually banned from being an officer of ANY company.

Any _public_ company.

------
tnolet
Theranos is by far the most explicit example of "fake it till you make it"
I've seen. Maybe that motto should be shelved in the future.

~~~
Alex3917
The idea of "faking it till you make it" is about projecting the self-
confidence of someone whose already successful. I've never heard anyone use
this phrase as a justification for providing materially false statements to
investors or whatever.

~~~
cal5k
I think the problem is that people often get away with doing ethically dubious
things in early-stage startups. It only makes news when they got caught.

For example: Airbnb started out by scraping Craiglist for their listings. This
was not only ethically dubious, it was against Craigslist's terms of service.

They got away with it, though, and have obviously gone legitimate since. Same
with YouTube and copyrighted content.

~~~
Alex3917
> I think the problem is that people often get away with doing ethically
> dubious things in early-stage startups.

No doubt. However, I personally don't see this as being at all related to
'fake it till you make it' as a concept.

------
grizzles
They just raised $100M from Fortress Capital backed by their patent portfolio.
If I had to guess this money is probably coming from a subset of their
existing stuck investors banding together in a magical thinking exercise to
win back. A good lesson in human frailties. It's hard to watch something you
had that you thought was worth billions go to zero. They might as well have
funded a whole new company.

~~~
bllguo
unbelievable. After seeing this, can anyone doubt that luck is a major factor
in success? These investors won't even take the time to do the most basic due
diligence. They have no business managing millions of dollars.

~~~
grizzles
Venture capital tends to be a badly performing asset class. Here a VC's
motivation is easy to discern, it's a way to kick the can down the road. You
take a liability (your shitty investment) and Fortress magically transforms it
into something that looks vaguely asset-like (a portfolio of shitty
investments). The only question is if the top up you pay will be worth it to
the LPs. To the VC it is, because it saves embarrassment. Due to this moral
hazard, there is a maybe an argument to be made here that distressed asset
industry kind of breaks capitalism.

~~~
bllguo
I appreciate the insight. There is more nuance here than my comment would
suggest. What I said probably applies more to the initial investors, before
Theranos was fully exposed as fraudulent.

------
dandare
Now take a minute to think about the actual employees. Most of them did
nothing wrong. Many relocated of left their previous jobs, their carriers are
disturbed, their CVs tainted.

------
jbob2000
You'd have to be pretty stubborn to remain at this company after all of the
bad news it's been getting lately. The writing was on the wall like a year ago
that this ship was sinking, why would anyone stay?

~~~
vkou
Because they need a paycheck. Searching for a new job is incredibly stressful
and emotionally draining, and is not the best option for everyone, at any
particular time.

~~~
sbarre
Indeed..

I suspect the average HNer is much more employable than the average
corporate/office worker, and it's something we all probably lose sight of from
time to time (particularly when I see comments like "just get a different
job!")

~~~
rmk
Not to mention the fact that healthcare is tied to your employer, so if you
are the sole breadwinner for a large family, you pretty much have to have
another job in hand before you can jump ship. The recession ended a while ago,
but it was a relatively jobless recovery and non-tech sectors still haven't
recovered fully.

~~~
ghaff
Well, there is COBRA but you'll have to cover whatever subsidy your employer
was providing.

~~~
jcadam
I've always wondered how in the world an unemployed person could possibly
afford COBRA...

~~~
ghaff
Obviously it's hard absent having had a decent job but people can and do take
time off between jobs or take some time to find new employment. Health
insurance isn't cheap but, given some savings, it's not in the couldn't
possibly afford range any more than rent/mortgage is. I've been between jobs,
albeit not for very long, and it was an expense but never a particular issue.

------
k1lly
Again, what did you expect?

[https://medium.com/multiple-personalities-order/how-to-be-
th...](https://medium.com/multiple-personalities-order/how-to-be-the-best-
investor-in-the-world-ed31163fe965)

------
Simulacra
Where does Elizabeth Holmes go from here? Does she have a future somewhere
else, or is this something that will be hard to come back from? I don't see
her as someone who would willingly work for others. Thoughts?

~~~
MrMember
Write a book, maybe? You'd have to be insane to hire her or invest in anything
she does in the future.

~~~
Nelson69
It's really up to if the investors felt she defrauded them all. Some clearly
do but others? It's not so clear to me. For whatever the reasons, she seems to
be loved by at least a few investors, enough so that it puts dorks here on HN
off.

Unicorn funding makes it a little different but I've worked with multiple CEOs
that lost investors millions of dollars, had companies fail and then had the
same investors bank roll them again. So long as the investors feel like
they're running things the right way and communicating with them the right
way, they appear to think a 40% hit ratio is stellar. Greed has a very limited
memory. She'll take a break, probably get some sort of sweetheart deal either
as a CEO or C-level officer of some small existing company in a different
space (ad analytics or something, who knows?) and if they knock that out of
the park, she'll be a champion again ready to get funding for whatever hot
idea turns up. I also wouldn't be surprised to see her working at a VC firm.

If the DOJ swoops in and has charged, that would make things different.

------
pg_bot
I actually found it incredible that they had 125 people still working for
them. Why would anyone continue to spend their time working for such a
disreputable company?

~~~
ThrustVectoring
Rent is due and you have no better options.

------
neurotech1
Non-Paywall: [http://archive.is/xtXYU](http://archive.is/xtXYU)

------
wintorez
This article aged so well: [http://time.com/3822734/elizabeth-
holmes-2015-time-100/](http://time.com/3822734/elizabeth-
holmes-2015-time-100/)

~~~
adamsea
Ahh, hahahaha. And it’s by Henry Kissinger.

~~~
lotsofpulp
He whored himself out for so little.

~~~
lainga
So little? He and Mattis were the pimps in this case.

~~~
lotsofpulp
I guess I don't know what his payout was, but he attached his name to
something embarrassing which couldn't have possibly made him that much extra
cash.

------
the_cat_kittles
i take enormous pleasure in this, its great to see a fraud go down, simple as
that

~~~
khhh35575544
Arguably a step forward for feminism also

