She represents all of them as far as people are concerned, and that’s unfortunate,” Putnam says. “Right now, who’s been prosecuted? One white woman. The unfortunate reality of Theranos is that some women founders in healthtech are now being compared to Holmes, according to the New York Times-women founders already struggle to land funding from venture capitalists compared to male peers. “That doesn’t make her more or less guilty though.” “I think the choice to bring charges against her had a lot to do with a female who defrauded a bunch of wealthy white men,” Putnam tells me. That’s something on the mind of Katherine Putnam, a startup consultant and angel investor. Has she been held to a different standard than other startup founders, and might that have something to do with her being a woman? CEOs like Josh Tetrick of Hampton Creek or Travis Kalanick of Uber haven’t been charged, even though they have allegedly made deceptive claims to investors, too. More food for thought on Elizabeth Holmes. “I for one do not believe Holmes is alone either in CEO behavior, venture board governance breakdowns or in inadequate investor due diligence.” “While venture capitalists have been quick to absolve their industry from any stink-by-association with l’affaire Holmes, the fact is Theranos checked every box of the symptoms that broadly characterize the current VC blitzscale bubble,” Len Sherman, a Columbia Business School professor, wrote to me in an email. The other end of the spectrum is that Silicon Valley has a widespread, underlying disease that needs to be addressed-Theranos may only be an ugly growth of that. “Now, I wouldn’t perpetuate the funding if it turned out they weren’t able to do what they said they would,” he adds.
Here’s why I’ve been able to find it and other people haven’t.’ I’d back them in a heartbeat,” Sahlman says. “If someone came in tomorrow, including a 19-year-old Stanford student, and said: ‘Look, I’ve developed this way to detect colon cancer 15 years before it shows up… Here’s the protein marker.
#Holmes about venture capitalism trial#
This is the nature of investing in progress.”ĭraper declined to comment on questions specifically regarding whether any evidence presented in trial had shifted any of his opinions or regarding his thoughts on the near- one million test results Theranos had to void or correct.
I still believe in what she was trying to do, and if this scrutiny happened to every entrepreneur as they tried to make this world a better place, we would have no automobile, no smartphone, no antibiotics, and no automation, and our world would be less for it.Ī willingness to bet on these entrepreneurs and their visions has made Silicon Valley the innovation engine of the world. Entrepreneurs invent and keep iterating until their product works. What has made America and Silicon Valley great is its ability to recognize what is possible. “This verdict makes me concerned that the spirit of entrepreneurship in America is in jeopardy.
#Holmes about venture capitalism series#
In a response to a series of questions, Draper sent me the following statement via email: Tim Draper, a venture capitalist who wrote Holmes a $1 million check when she dropped out of Stanford at 19 to start Theranos, says he still believes in what Holmes was trying to do.
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