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Comment by tibbydudeza | Hacker News Reader

His outsized image was due to being an ESG/progressive media darling, rather than any sort of presence in the tech industry or silicon valley.

First thing that came to mind: Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes. Read the Carreyrou book, I recommend it.

What are you talking about, all of Silicon Valley saw the red flags and passed on investing.

It’s the old school, non-tech East Coast investors and DC political connections that failed to do their diligence.

Nearly 100% of Theranos's investors were West Coast people and prominently included Tim Draper and Larry Ellison.

It is hilarious that you think there is some magic skill to tech investing that makes these people less crudulous.

https://www.crunchbase.com/search/principal.investors/field/...

Context matter. Tim invested small (for him) amount of money in company of daughter of the family friend. At seed stage - there was really no due diligence to do at the time.

Draper backed Holmes and still supports her to this day

The CEO and company are from Washington State, but go on...

And WeWork is a New York company....with a primarily Japanese investor (SoftBank).

Terraluna is based in Korea, where the founder lives.

“Silicon Valley” is a culture not just a physical location.

That’s like saying you can be a New Yorker without living in New York.

Just ain’t possible. Culture comes from circumstances, weather, geography, history and so many other things. Something is always lost when you try to copy it without the context.

But Silicon Valley isn't even a fixed geographical location before. It used to refer only to the South Bay. But during this tech boom, it has spread to as far as San Francisco to the north, and to the East Bay. It's a very fluid entity with no fixed boundaries.

Facebook was started at Harvard, it only moved to Palo Alto later on. Does that make it truly a Silicon Valley company, or a johnny come lately? What about Amazon or Microsoft, the standard-bearers of the Seattle tech scene? Are they somehow not Silicon Valley even if their industry impact and business practices line up exactly with the rest of the Silicon Valley crowd? Perhaps it can be said that in some contexts, "Silicon Valley" can be synonymous with "the American tech industry in general."

Something - but apparently not enough in this case.

Silicon Valley is a location, startup culture is everywhere

It seems some commenters are rather defensive.

Would “startup culture” be more accurate?

Terraform Labs was based in Seoul. The name of the company was not "Terraluna".

I'm uncertain what Silicon Valley has to do with Terraform Labs, WeWork, nor Gravity Payments given that neither of these companies were based in the valley.

If you are attempting to make a jab at Silicon Valley, it doesn't seem to be landing.

How could I forgot about Theranos - Sand Hill Road - Bazinga.

Apple

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