
Theranos Could Have Been Stopped - evo_9
https://mondaynote.com/theranos-could-have-been-stopped-9670793e3431
======
Nomentatus
Good to hear a corroborating individual story. Stopped earlier, yes. Stopped
before investors got burned? That's a different question. It's hard to stop
sexual corruption, and it now looks like that has to be considered as a
possible root cause of the debacle. How intimately Sunny Balwani was involved
in the initial fund raising hasn't been detailed as yet however.
[http://www.businessinsider.com/theranos-former-president-
sun...](http://www.businessinsider.com/theranos-former-president-sunny-
balwani-role-in-the-company-2018-5?op=1)

But Theranos is one grain of sand on a vast shore: The laws could be being
enforced vs corporations, but they aren't. The great sub-prime robbery could
have been stopped, but it wasn't. Could have been punished, but that hasn't
happened. Gerrymandering puts laws and enforcement up for sale by taking
ordinary voters out of the loop.

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ivraatiems
Dishearteningly true. This didn't have to happen; as I've said before on HN,
Theranos seems, from the outside, to be such a blatantly, mustache-twirlingly
evil entity that it's hard to understand how anyone could have thought it was
a good investment, let alone a moral choice to support.

Not that Silicon Valley, for all its crowing about making the world a better
place, ever cared about that sort of thing - but they could at least be more
honest about what they actually want. Growth, always, growth without
limitation, growth regardless of how it is achieved. That attitude is part of
what enables this kind of misconduct, and it's what will allow this to keep
happening, in other companies and industries, into the future.

The Theranos Deception, linked from the posted article[1], mentions Elizabeth
Holmes is asking for even more money to continue to support the company. The
fact that she can still do that, and indeed, might get it, is sickening.

[1] [https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-theranos-elizabeth-
holmes-d...](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-theranos-elizabeth-holmes-
deception/)

~~~
abraae
At the heart of many companies is often a founder who wields the reality
distortion field.

As a tool for smashing organizational roadblocks, as Steve Jobs did, this can
work wonders. Things that seemed only potentially possible can become real.

Theranos probably falls into this category too. If they had kept going, made
breakthroughs, addressed the toxic culture, not been uncovered by
investigative journalists while at a vulnerable stage - perhaps they would
have made it.

Perhaps Elizabeth Holmes still genuinely believes that all she needs is more
time, money and followers for her to prove the nay-sayers wrong.

------
valbaca
Please tell me I'm not the only one that thought this was "Thanos Could Have
Been Stopped"

~~~
smacktoward
So that's how Elizabeth Holmes raised all that money. She found the Infinity
Stones!

