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by metaphorm 3436 days ago
> Personal connections?

In the case of Theranos I believe it was this. Elizabeth Holmes seemed to have an "in" with a lot of Washington D.C. influencers and I'm pretty sure her pitch was based on using those connections to score lucrative DoD contracts.
1 comments
trhway 3436 days ago
>Elizabeth Holmes seemed to have an "in" with a lot of Washington D.C. influencers

her father has that "in". USAID is sometimes a cover for CIA, and the "network effect" here has been extremely high.

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jackcosgrove 3436 days ago
The fact that her father is tied to USAID makes a lot of sense. USAID is the soft power arm of the federal government. It exists mainly to bribe foreign leaders to gain desired policy outcomes in their countries. It does do some good things when those align with politics.

If you needed to find government patrons willing to invest in a corrupt organization and engender goodwill at the same time, USAID is not a bad choice.

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