> I bet they pour over and nitpick lots of minor details on the financials

What financials? Lots of these companies have little to no revenue.

Projections up and to the right.

"this graph looks like a hockey stick, how's $50 million?"

Some cliches never go out of style. I was at a startup in the mid 1980s and the words "hockey stick" came out of the CEO's mouth quite often.

Edit: BTW that mythical hockey stick quarter never did arrive.

to be fair, their competition has well-known financials. The size of the existing market for blood tests is already large; any penetration would give you a sizable business.

"If this company obtains 1% of a $500 billion market, things will be great!" is not due diligence. Here, everything realistically comes down to the technology because the company's ability to gain and sustain market share is almost wholly dependent on it having a superior technology.

The ones on the business plan