Ethmos Podcast Pulse
Start free
← The Pulse · week of Oct 19–25
PodcastThis Week in StartupsOctober 22, 2026

We asked 3 VCs: would you invest in Elizabeth Holmes’ next startup? | E2353

VCs say seed investing requires tolerating ~1-2.5% fraud and treat pro rata rights as non-negotiable amid a live lawsuit over them.

  • Seed fraud is normal: Sam Lessin says his fund runs roughly a 1-2.5% 'oops, it was fraud' rate across ~350 investments, comparing it to credit-card loss rates that funds should just budget for.
  • Diligence scales with check size: Panelists agree a $25K-$50K seed check can't bear the diligence cost of a $100M round — Lessin says Theranos's error was treating $100M checks like Series C with Series A scrutiny.

The full card is a free trial away.

The full summary and the deep dive on this episode, plus a brief every morning on the shows and companies you follow.

Read free — start your trial

14-day free trial

Themes, sentiment and reasons are AI-written paraphrases, checked so they never quote an episode. They may contain errors. Not investment advice. Episodes remain the property of their creators.