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SAN JOSE, California — In 2016, the start-up founders sang “Theranos doesn’t represent, we’re better” in a song. holiday video It was created by venture capital firm First Round Capital.

In the next few years, several columnists Wrote Silicon Valley shouldn’t be blamed for Theranos.

Last month, Keith Rabois, a venture capitalist, said: said on Twitter That the articles linking Theranos to Silicon Valley culture contain “more fabrication than anything said by Trump.”

Technopaths in Silicon Valley and beyond have long sought to differentiate themselves from the blood-testing startup Theranos, which emerged in Palo Alto, California, because it lied about its capabilities. But the fraud case of company founder Elizabeth Holmes, like Bernard Madoff Creature of Wall Street and Enron represented The get-rich-quick excesses of the 1990s were the product of Theranos and its leader, Silicon Valley.

The usual refrain was: Theranos was more of a healthcare company than a tech company. While raising money from wealthy families and people outside the tech industry, insiders saw hype.

But testimony and court exhibits in Ms. Holmes’ nearly four-month case, which closed on Monday. jury found entrepreneur guilty of four of 11 scamsclearly underlined his involvement in the culture of Silicon Valley.

Holmes, 37, has used the mentoring and credibility of tech industry big names like Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and Silicon Valley venture capitalist Don Lucas to raise money from others. Atherton lived in California among the Silicon Valley elite and welcomed around.

It also used the hype, exclusivity, and “fear of missing out” startup playbook to win over subsequent investors. He embodied the start-up rush culture with optimizing your life for the maximum amount of work. He rejected the “haters” and anything that interfered with his vision for a better world. He studied task-oriented technobabble as a parrot. Even dressed as Steve Jobs.

No industry wants to be judged only by its worst actors. And many venture capitalists who heard Ms. Holmes’ incredibly loud claims were not fooled by them. But if anyone in Silicon Valley became suspicious of his statements, no one spoke publicly about it until things took a turn for the worse.

Soon after The Wall Street Journal uncovered Ms. Holmes’ alleged fraud on Theranos in 2015, some leading tech investors even rushed to defend her in a somewhat stunned tribalism.

Even the presiding judge in Ms. Holmes’ case, Edward J. Davila of the U.S. District Court in San Jose, California, agreed that Silicon Valley culture was an important part of her case. He allowed his lawyers to discuss the overly optimistic bloat of the tech industry as part of his defense.

“This type of behavior by supporters is common in Silicon Valley,” Judge Davila said. said at a hearing in May before the trial began.

At best, Silicon Valley is optimistic. Worst of all, he is so naive that he believes his own bullshit. Throughout her trial, Ms. Holmes’ lawyers argued that she was simply a wide-eyed believer. They said that any statement that is not entirely true is about the future. That’s what investors wanted to hear, they said.

“They weren’t interested in today, tomorrow or next month,” said Ms. Holmes. “They were interested in what kind of change we could make.”

Shortly after Theranos began operating in 2003, she used her vision of the future to win over investors and advisors such as Ms. Holmes, Mr. Ellison and Mr. Lucas. Mr. Lucas, who was chairman of Theranos until 2013, has dealt with more than 20 investment vehicles that support Theranos. These include his son’s venture company, the Lucas Venture Group; another tool, PEER Venture Partners; and trusts and foundations associated with members of his family.

Mr. Lucas introduced the Hall Group, a real estate firm that put $4.9 million into Theranos, to Ms. Holmes. His nephew’s firm, Black Diamond Ventures, invested $5.4 million. Other Silicon Valley investors included Beta Bayview, a fund run by ATA Ventures and Crosslink Capital.

Mr. Lucas and his son have since died. Lucas Venture Group did not respond to a request for comment.

Dixon Doll, founder of Silicon Valley investment firm DCM, and Reid Dennis, founder of venture firm IVP, which supports tech companies like Slack, Twitter and Snap, also invested. Founded by venture capitalist Tim Draper, Draper Associates has invested in Theranos, as have two funds run by his other firm, Draper Fisher Jurvetson.

A DCM representative said Mr. Doll left the firm more than eight years ago, and a spokesperson for DFJ declined to comment.

Mr. Draper said in a statement that Ms. Holmes’ decision concerns him because it shows that America’s entrepreneurial spirit is at stake. “The willingness to bet on these entrepreneurs and their visions has made Silicon Valley the innovation engine of the world,” he said.

Everyone who heard Miss Holmes’ voice was not astonished. Bijan Salehizadeh, an investor at Highland Capital Partners, said he did not invest in Theranos in 2006 because he was unable to answer many of Ms. Holmes’ questions.

But as Theranos’ fundraising made the headlines, Mr. Salehizadeh questioned his decision. He said venture capitalists hanging out at the Rosewood Hotel on Sand Hill Road, one of the main arteries of Silicon Valley, in Menlo Park, California, began humming about the company.

“They were like, ‘This hot Theranos thing – you saw it as a paramedic and didn’t you? How could you get past a unicorn if it was sitting in your office at the earliest stages?’”

Ms. Holmes used this scam to get larger checks from wealthy families, including heirs to the Amway, Walmart, and Cox Enterprises fortunes. Industry insiders also offered their support. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch met Ms. Holmes at a Silicon Valley premiere hosted by Yuri Milner, a tech investor. Mr. Milner praised Mrs. Holmes to Mr. Murdoch, “bad blood” is a book by John Carreyrou, a former Wall Street Journal reporter.

Brian Grossman, an investor in health-focused hedge fund PFM Health Sciences, learned about Theranos through Thomas Laffont, co-founder of Coatue Management, a leading San Francisco-based investment fund. In an email that was part of the court filings, Mr. Laffont gushing He said Theranos had “one of the most impressive boards I’ve ever seen” and that if he was interested in a promotion, Mr Grossman’s firm should notify him “as soon as possible”.

Coatue did not responded to a request for comment, and PFM Health Sciences declined to comment.

As Theranos gained more shareholders, Ms. Holmes tightened her control over the company, allowing her to control her voting power even if the company went public. Chris Lucas, founder of Black Diamond Ventures, explained in a conversation with other investors recorded and played in court that this is typical for such companies.

Ms. Holmes’ controlling stake was “just like some of the other high-flying companies in Silicon Valley,” she said.

In 2014, DFJ boasted on Facebook of its investment in Theranos. “As its first investor, I am proud to have supported Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos for more than a decade,” the firm said.

The following year, while Mr. Carreyrou was investigating Theranos’ claims for The Journal, Ms. Holmes adopted Silicon Valley’s favorite form of diversion: Label anyone who asks tough questions an enemy. Before Mr. Carreyrou released his first disclosure about Theranos, Ms. Holmes and her partner at the time, Ramesh Balwani, the venture’s chief operating officer, made fun of the reporter’s French heritage.

Ms. Holmes wrote to Mr. Balwani “Proud mocking”.

“Cynicism and skepticism are diabetes of the human spirit,” replied Mr. Balwani. “No one should be proud of diseases.”

After the magazine article was published, Miss Holmes used a rebuttal embrace by many in the tech industry. “This is what happens when you try to change things,” he said in a television interview. “First they think you’re crazy, then they fight you, and then all of a sudden you change the world.”

Since the collapse of Theranos, more tech startups have followed the strategy of looking outside the small Sand Hill Road network of venture capital firms for financing. Startups raise more money at higher valuations and deals accelerated. Mutual funds, hedge funds, family offices, private equity funds, and mega funds like SoftBank’s Vision Fund rushed to support them.

Mr. Salehizadeh He said Silicon Valley’s shift to focus above all on fundraising was one reason he left to set up a private equity firm on the East Coast. Big money brings more shine to start-up tech companies, but has little basis in business fundamentals, he said.

“You always feel like you’re either an idiot or a great person,” he said. “It’s a tough way to be an investor.”