All 5 recommendations
Est. prices as of 18 Mar 2026
#1 · Elizabeth Holmes Innovation Lab · Most Overhyped
Theranos (2014 TechCrunch Disrupt)
$700M in funding
Revolutionary blood testing that literally didn't work—but the presentation was *chef's kiss*
- ✓ Incredible storytelling
- ✓ Secured billions in venture funding
- ✓ Got on magazine covers
- ✗ Technology was completely fraudulent
- ✗ Founder now facing criminal charges
- ✗ Destroyed investor confidence in Silicon Valley for years
#2 · Jeffrey Katzenberg's Dream · Hidden Gem
Quibi (2018 SXSW Momentum Award)
$1.75B raised
Premium short-form mobile video—because nobody asked for this in landscape mode
- ✓ Celebrity-backed content
- ✓ Strong initial funding
- ✓ Sleek mobile interface
- ✗ Launched during pandemic lockdowns when everyone had time for long-form content
- ✗ Shut down after 6 months
- ✗ Became synonymous with executive disconnection from reality
#3 · Juicero Inc.
The Juicero (2016 TechCrunch Disrupt)
$400 per unit
$120M funded to squeeze juice you could squeeze by hand
- ✓ Beautiful industrial design
- ✓ IoT integration nobody needed
- ✓ Excellent marketing
- ✗ Journalists discovered manual squeezing worked identically
- ✗ Became internet meme
- ✗ Business model based entirely on proprietary juice packs nobody wanted
#4 · Pimm Labs · Budget King
Pimm (2017 Startup Battlefield)
$15M raised
AI-powered personal shopping assistant that learned nothing and forgot everything
- ✓ Early AI trend positioning
- ✓ Raised decent seed funding
- ✓ Pitch deck had cool visualizations
- ✗ Technology couldn't match user preferences accurately
- ✗ Shut down operations silently
- ✗ No post-mortem explanation to investors
#5 · Anonymous Developers Collective
DashCoin (2018 Blockchain Pitch Summit)
$8M ICO
Cryptocurrency for... actually nobody knows what it was for
- ✓ Won multiple blockchain pitch competitions
- ✓ Whitepaper looked official
- ✓ Community was very excited for approximately 4 weeks
- ✗ Founders liquidated all tokens immediately post-ICO
- ✗ Zero actual use case
- ✗ Became cautionary tale for crypto regulation