[randycupertino]

It's because Theranos with it's pretty blonde Stanford dropout founder was an absolute media darling for 7 months to a year, could do no wrong, had heaps of fawning puff piece press. Now that their questionable tech has come to light, the press feels burned and is vengeful of being caught giving them a blowjob without due diligence. So now the media swings the opposite way and lashes out at Theranos to overcompensate.

[codezero]

again, why does the attractiveness and hair color of the founder have anything to do with this discussion?

[randycupertino]

Because they used it as a way to cultivate attention to their company. She was a Glamour "Woman of the Year" http://fortune.com/2015/10/29/theranos-founder-ceo-elizabeth...

Her pedigree, looks, family $$, being a Stanford dropout, blonde haircut, blue eyes, Steve Jobs drag and surfer voice (she took vocal coaching to deepen her voice to sound more like a leader) all combined as tantalizing catnip to the press. Theranos knew this and purposely stirred up a media storm focusing singularly on Holmes, NOT on the technology. Almost like it was constructed like a sleight of hand so everyone would be distracted by the cult of personality around the pretty blonde founder and ignore their lack of peer reviewed research that their testing methods actually worked.

[DanBC]

Her looks are mentioned here because her looks were mentioned in all the early promotional coverage. Her looks are not relevant here, but the fact that every media place that spoke about theranos also mentioned her looks is on topic in threads about theranos.

[eruditely]

Your vigilance is cringe inducing. please stop.

[codezero]

You're welcome not to answer questions I ask. I'm not breaking any rules in asking them here in a community where I often get extremely insightful answers to questions. I'm happy to admit ignorance about a lot of the startup drama I read here. I'm sorry this rubs you the wrong way.

[anon8418]

Because it was an influencing factor in the initial media infatuation with Theranos.

If u goto their website a lot of the media and copy is very founder-specific. Almost like they are trying to build some cult of personality around her.