It's hard not to recall Theranos and its founder Elizabeth Holmes while reading the New Yorker article on VCs' reluctance to confront the WeWork founder. Both startups had charismatic founders who projected an "aura" of someone eccentric and exceptional. Investors of both startups also failed to do due diligence. According to the New Yorker article, VCs of WeWork were aware of the unprofessional working environment and the founder's absurd requests and outlandish behaviors, but they kept silent. Prominent figures who invested in Theranos did not question the science behind the company's products. These two cases in parallel remind me of the first line of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina: "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Maybe the opposite is true in startups; failing companies are alike in that the founders had no one around them who could provide advice that is hard to swallow.
p.s. What interested me in the biotech VC in the first place was the prospect of being part of the growth of innovative companies, just like I cherish the opportunity to become part of someone's growth through my teaching job. The New Yorker article above reminds me that no matter what I do, I should always ask myself what really entails the job I'm doing and what in it drew me to the job in the first place.