Claudius wrote:Mirth wrote:Finished reading Bad Blood.
Genuinely reads like a thriller novel but also an insight to the workings of Silicon Valley that often doesn't get the same scrutiny as Wall Street.
It's a scary book.
But it's actually the same beast as Wall Street. The two are intertwined. When we talk about billionaires and inequality, the new Silicon Valley machine of the last 25 years is an integral part of this. In line with American culture, individuals are given inordinate value in business formation. Businesses are then given much more cash than at any time in history to accelerate their growth to maturity. And various VCs load in due to FOMO and wink-wink dealing to inflate valuations. So you have these overvalued business with highly concentrated ownership by a few founders and early investors - who bank billions.Look at the US rich list. So much of that list is coming out Silicon Valley. I think she's fascinating because she stole so much money but also because she's a woman in a man's world.
FOMO indeed, was shocking that the likes of Wallgreens and Safeways basically signed multi million dollar contracts without even confirming that what they were buying worked. Must say, I was pleasantly surprised that Murdoch left the WSJ to do its investigation even though he controlled it via News Corp and the investigation cost him millions.
My main point vs Wall Street is that listed companies at least have to go through certain hoops to raise funding. Of course people still skirt around it but it's a lot harder than what Theranos did. They didn't even have a CFO!
