Correct, you're not actually refuting anything I said. It's much more difficult to do diligence on a private firm than it is a public firm (due to SEC requirements). That's my entire point.
In the "what if Theranos was a SPAC" counter-factual, it's just as equally likely that dumb money never makes its way to Theranos in the first place because institutional short sellers have a vested interest in turning the logs over and kicking the tires long before Fortune magazine runs cult-of-personality profiles on the founder.
In the "what if Theranos was a SPAC" counter-factual, it's just as equally likely that dumb money never makes its way to Theranos in the first place because institutional short sellers have a vested interest in turning the logs over and kicking the tires long before Fortune magazine runs cult-of-personality profiles on the founder.