model_citizens

Hi John, loved your reporting and the book. As a journalist, I know the WSJ news side has a fairly testy relationship with the WSJ editorial side, and that subtext was sort of part of the book: you noted how an uncritical WSJ editorial gave Holmes an early platform. Did the news and editorial sides ever have conversations with each other re: their respective Theranos coverage? Has the WSJ writer who wrote the early editorial ever expressed regret?

As someone who grew up next to the Cambridge biotech scene, I'm curious: could Theranos ever have come out of that area? I guess the Bay Area has more VCs and stuff, but does the Boston biotech scene have a different "vibe" than the west coast biotech scene?

In interviews and in the book, you frequently make the same point: building Theranos is not the same as building an app; patient health and safety was at stake. On one hand, I completely agree: healthcare startups can't "move fast and break things" in the same way an app startup can, and healthcare startups should operate within the regulatory and peer review process. But I think in making this point, you effectively let the typical Silicon Valley startup off the hook: after all, apps govern more and more of our lives, and increasingly interact with our mental and physical health. And an app startup, of course, is ostensibly beholden to the same sort of financial regulation and SEC investor protections that Theranos was. So I guess my question is: what lessons can a non-healthcare startup take away from this?

Elon Musk. (I don't think he's a fraud, but I think like Holmes, around him there's 1) a cult of personality; 2) distrust of the media; 3) compressed management/oversight structure; 4) disdain for regulation)

I think Carreyrou said there was a sort of reconciliation, with George Shultz admitting Theranos was a fraud.