> In biology you get things like Theranos, which is the sort of long term scam that's much harder to pull off in the software world.
It's funny that in the biomedical circles, it's been remarked that Theranos is what happens when the software world (Silicon Valley) try their hand at biology. You can't fake it to you make it here, if the science doesn't work it doesn't work, no matter how much VC funding and employees you throw at the problem.
Wow. I really hope that's not really the takeaway biotech people are getting from Theranos.
Firstly, Therano's investors were mostly not tech VCs - I can only find one in the list actually, unless you count Larry Ellison in a private capacity. Theranos got a lot of money from non-tech investors like Rupert Murdoch, Walgreens, private equity etc. One reason they had to do this is exactly because tech VCs know to stay away from anything biotech related - the people who work in that space should be wondering why.
Secondly, Holmes did fake it to make it. That's the point. Faking it was sufficiently easy that they went years before the scam fell apart, they even got their machines deployed!
What's the software equivalent of such a large scale, 100% fraudulent operation? I can't think of any offhand, because it's normally pretty clear early on whether software is working or not.
That's exactly what I take away from the whole Theranos story, non-scientists scamming non-scientists out of their money, because neither of them understood the science, or were too arrogant to admit some things could not be done despite the flashy presentations.
You should also note that none of her funders or advisory board had much to do with biotech or diagnostics either. Might be because those with knowledge of the area had been calling it a scam since 2014.
It's funny that in the biomedical circles, it's been remarked that Theranos is what happens when the software world (Silicon Valley) try their hand at biology. You can't fake it to you make it here, if the science doesn't work it doesn't work, no matter how much VC funding and employees you throw at the problem.