She comes from a very, very privileged family with the kind of connections most of us can only dream about. Alas that still counts for a lot, even amongst the VCs (especially amongst?) in PAMPA.
Yes, and she is apparently unmatched at creating reality distortion fields. And her minions just played the oldest game in technology. When people come over, and you don't want to show them anything, show them the machine shop. The Times was mystified by a dial indicator and chips (garbage) from a milling machine.
This whole episode is the best justification for the thesis that that VCs are successful, not from adding value, but simply being presented with the best deals. Perhaps that bull at the Dallas Morning News could do as well.
Also, she doesn't work in health care. Theranos is a pr/investment vehicle. The products are overhyped, she's a figurehead, the entire idea is to get investors to part with their cash for as long as possible - and then when it all goes wrong the pretty face in charge stays out if jail. It ain't her business.
I see her and Shkreli as fundamentally doing the same thing - just she's doing it not like an idiot, like him.
This is a true point. When you have a lot of money available to invest and you already have a diverse portfolio of high risk-reward investments I suppose it isn't such a big deal to spend 1m on an intelligent family friend. Still... they didn't get to be that wealthy by being careless with their money so I suppose we/I just don't know the full story.
It's the other way around. They will have approached her, as they smelt an opportunity to use her, as they are still now. Egoistic people are really easy to manipulate, and you only have to stay one step ahead of the wake of your reality distortion field to pull it off.
The house of cards will come tumbling down at some point, but it won't matter, there won't be consequences.
I know this because I've spent enough time in the world of the mega-rich, had enough passes made at me by apparently well meaning robber barons, to know that this is how this works.
The story as it was explained to me (by Tim Draper) was that Elizabeth grew up with Tim's daughter, Jesse, and asking for her first million from him was thus relatively easy.
I don't know, it seems like many people with a lot of money can afford to be frivolous and end up bailed-out by the government.
See the Wall Street melt-down in 2009. These are supposedly finance professionals who "lent to the wrong sorts" but that's their only job, determining who and who not to lend to, right?
There's a lot of "boys will be boys" among the upper-middle class and wealthy, whether those "boys" are boys or girls of these families.
I see a lot of old men, who once wielded a lot of power, being assiduously ego stroked by a young master, whose upbringing served to hone that skill to perfection.
This whole episode is the best justification for the thesis that that VCs are successful, not from adding value, but simply being presented with the best deals. Perhaps that bull at the Dallas Morning News could do as well.