Elizabeth Holmes is on trial for fraud, but don't forget about her VC enablers

Re:Elizabeth Holmes is on trial for fraud, but don't forget ... by matwood on Friday October 22, 2021 @09:06AM (#28956751)

If she had gotten to the next round of funding and developed anything she probably would have been fine. Overhanging the market is typically celebrated in startup culture marketing. Look how long WeWork went on or this company (https://www.aspiration.com) trying to go public right now. Both are playing fast and loose with their financials.

At the end of the day, this feels like a bunch of rich people got suckered, couldn't dump it on the public market, and wanted to blame someone for their embarrassment.

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Re:Elizabeth Holmes is on trial for fraud, but don't forget ... by 1986 on Friday October 22, 2021 @09:49AM (#28957157)

Can you talk more or provide a link about what's going on with Aspiration? All I was able to find is that they're going the SPAC route, would like to understand more about any specific sketchiness.

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Re:Elizabeth Holmes is on trial for fraud, but don't forget ... by matwood on Friday October 22, 2021 @10:13AM (#28957420)

https://www.profgalloway.com/jumping-the-spac/

Over in reality, the company’s operations burned $34 million in 2020, and they’re projected to burn $133 million in 2021. In the rest of the deck, Aspiration refers to its “EBITDAM profitability this quarter” and then uses EBITDAM throughout its financial analysis. Which is rich for a company whose entire (projected) profit model is dependent on explosive customer acquisition, which (to date) has been really, really expensive.

And I just love comments like this hah

This is a firm that registered less than $15 million in revenue last year. PayPal makes $15 million in revenue every five hours. It’s less than most NFL starting quarterbacks made in 2020 — Leo’s former girlfriend’s husband made over twice that.

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