from Hacker News

Theranos Agrees to Pay $4.65M in Arizona Refunds

by radnam on 4/18/17, 8:10 PM with 87 comments

• by propman on 4/18/17, 9:21 PM

  The biggest takeaway from Theranos is that investigative Journalism is not dead. John Careryu (sp?) single handedly dug up the truth in a non disparaging factual manner and went up against a team of ruthless lawyers threatening to utterly destroy him, the Journal, and his source. That source was a 24 year old hero whose parents put up their house as collateral just to help their son do the right thing when he had no monetary gain from it. After learning so much about the bullshit Theranos did, every nail that pushes it further into the ground has given me a justice euphoria high. I'll be following this until it's end

• by RangerScience on 4/18/17, 8:59 PM

  The story of Theranos makes me think about where the "great filter" lines for startups are.

  My prior company - who I was with from ~20 people to the current 300+ - has been going through some shakeups that make me wonder. This adds to my thinking.

  I'd have thought that both were past those lines - hundreds of people, multiple offices? Seems like it'd be solid at that point.

  The common factor is that both have yet to release their "flagship" product, although they've released products.

  Then you can think about small products with small teams - Sidekiq, Cards Against Humanity - that achieve substantial success.

  It seems like this is the most telling "filter" - did you release your core product?

  Thoughts?

• by blizkreeg on 4/19/17, 12:01 AM

  How long would this have gone on if not for the investigative piece? Would it have eventually cost someone their life? That's the scary part.

• by martin1975 on 4/18/17, 10:57 PM

  where's fu*kedcompany.com when you need it...

• by Boothroid on 4/18/17, 9:08 PM

  I remember thinking Theranos/Elizabeth Holmes was too good to be true from the very first time I read about it, no lie. Was it really plausible that this young woman could come up with an idea that the whole medical industry had missed? I can't quite articulate why, but it just didn't seem like medicine would be ripe for disruption in the same way as other industries that we've seen turned upside down. It takes decades for advances in cancer etc. Had Theranos really managed to stumble on something the entrenched players had missed? Such a strange story, so much money apparently squandered, and yet the zombie still stumbles on. How long before it's finally put out of its misery?!

• by user5994461 on 4/18/17, 9:27 PM

  Could we have a summary for people like me who are not familiar with them?

  What's the case on Theranos? what did they do and sale? What happened?

• by Mz on 4/18/17, 9:23 PM

  To my disgust, the biggest thing most people seem to take away from it is "Yup, that's what happens when a woman is in charge of a business."

  I'm a woman. I am fine with her burning. But, geez, I hate the idea that there is lava-like splash back spattering all other women in the world who are trying to be taken seriously.