One thing about Theranos that seems different from most SV hype stories is the insane level of focus on the founder. Every piece that reports on Theranos spends more time on her than it does the product. I&#x27;m speaking from minimal experience here (my start-up credentials right now extend to one short-lived company), but I think normally VCs aren&#x27;t willing to &quot;fund the founder&quot; vs. &quot;fund the product&quot; outside of the very early stages of a start-up. Theranos has been around for a decade and the fact Mrs. Holmes is a Stanford dropout is still nearly in every single article about the company. Contrast this to Mark Zuckerberg and his former association with Harvard is nearly never mentioned anymore (In articles dealing with Facebook).