[HN Gopher] YC-backed uBiome is basically Theranos-lite
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       YC-backed uBiome is basically Theranos-lite
        
       Author : donsupreme
       Score  : 38 points
       Date   : 2022-04-03 18:27 UTC (4 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (twitter.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (twitter.com)
        
       | reureu wrote:
       | Having worked in health tech for the past ten years, I can name
       | other companies that are equally massive frauds that just haven't
       | been discovered yet. All you need is a good PR team and some big
       | name investors, and it doesn't matter if what you're creating is
       | real or not... you can get away with a lot.
       | 
       | Health care and medicine isn't a "fake it till you make it" type
       | of industry, but that's the entire model that's preached in the
       | startup world. So, almost by definition, startups + health care
       | is really ripe for fraud and deception.
        
         | metadat wrote:
         | If you know of similar frauds, then please name them here.
        
           | reureu wrote:
           | Two that I'm comfortable sharing are:
           | 
           | Cerebral (cerebral.com): first, their whole business model is
           | about being a pill farm for controlled substances. So, out of
           | the gate that's pretty concerning (but, yes, you can make a
           | lot of money by providing easy access to adderall and
           | ativan). Beyond that, they're having a hell of time
           | recruiting providers and so their lead time for appointments
           | is pretty high. They're still taking customers on a
           | subscription basis, but can't provide appointments. I think
           | it's just a matter of time before that whole mess collapses.
           | 
           | One Medical (onemedical.com): in early 2021, they were caught
           | letting people skip the line for covid vaccines. The house
           | select committee on coronavirus investigated them and
           | released a pretty damning report back in December, and their
           | SEC filings have indicated that they're under further
           | investigations by some various organizations. Based on this
           | information and other chatter I've heard, I don't think
           | that's the only questionable thing they've done.
        
           | adampk wrote:
           | That is a big ask for someone that probably doesn't want all
           | that noise in their life?
        
       | adampk wrote:
       | It seems like health tech is the most "scammable" vertical, or is
       | most "scam-prone"? (scam might be a strong word, bs maybe more
       | accurate?)
       | 
       | Maybe it is because health-insurance billing is already so opaque
       | and error-prone it provides cover for questionable services.
       | Also, if the service is "free" to end-users (because it is
       | covered by health insurance) then why not try anything in the
       | name of self-health?
       | 
       | It seems the most sanctioned vertical to fake-it-till-you-make-it
       | till you hit critical mass and then you are too big to fail
       | because big SV names have already anointed you a winner.
       | 
       | https://www.theinformation.com/articles/the-inside-story-of-...
        
       | faangiq wrote:
       | Huh. Another SV darling of the past 5 years ends up being a
       | massive fraud. Sad there's no real media in this country to cover
       | these stories.
        
         | anamax wrote:
         | Theranos was not a "SV darling".
         | 
         | Yes, Theranos was headquartered in SV, but, the vast majority
         | of the investment money came from outside. (The only SV money
         | was some very early stuff from Draper, which was a relatively
         | small amount, and some later money from Larry Ellison.)
         | 
         | Yes, George Schultz lives in SV, but he's not of SV.
        
         | detaro wrote:
         | Some of the media reports are literally linked from the Twitter
         | thread here as sources.
        
         | simulate-me wrote:
         | This was covered by CNBC and WSJ. What media sources did you
         | check?
        
           | detaro wrote:
           | This really needs a "XYZ's law" label by now: If someone
           | didn't see it, or doesn't remember seeing the reporting a
           | year ago, or doesn't remember the headline accurately, it's
           | the fault of the evil media not reporting things.
        
         | toomuchtodo wrote:
         | Prescient comments from 3 years ago.
         | 
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18041106
         | 
         | "The grapevine says this place is a dog and pony show."
         | 
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18042433
         | 
         | "Grapevine is true. What they are doing is extremely
         | questionable. They are billing insurance thousands of dollars
         | for tests that are rudimentary and only look at absence or
         | presence of microbes."
        
       | 0des wrote:
       | How does this happen so often with YC companies? You'd think the
       | amount of applicants would raise the bar of scrutiny a little.
       | 
       | Can't tell if I'm getting older or if more often now some of the
       | newer YC inductees are getting accepted on factors other than
       | their tech accumen.
        
         | clpm4j wrote:
         | Out of the thousands of startups they've funded, how many have
         | been confirmed as scams?
        
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       (page generated 2022-04-03 23:02 UTC)