Pushing back on Theranos-as-an-indictment-of-Silicon-Valley-venture-capital is a fine point to make, but that's not the point he made. He said Theranos' cap table had an "absence of Silicon Valley firms", which is false. Also DFJ is not the only SV firm that invested. So did Larry Ellison in the $28.5M Series C. This is all very easy to find information.
It seems like a weird point to nit-pick, but in most of PG's essays, there are so few demonstrably easy-to-disprove facts. This one is easy. And the misplaced hubris in thinking zero SV firms were foolish enough to invest in a fraud makes you question all his other assertions.
It seems like a weird point to nit-pick, but in most of PG's essays, there are so few demonstrably easy-to-disprove facts. This one is easy. And the misplaced hubris in thinking zero SV firms were foolish enough to invest in a fraud makes you question all his other assertions.