If you were a VC, you either took her side or you shut your lips

No VC's, except maybe 1, were putting anything to Theranos. I believe it was an open secret to not invest in her, and again I don't think she even approached VC's apart from the people who gave her $5 million for her medication dispenser patch drawing.

She just called the most susceptible people. Lary Ellison likes to throw money around. Who tf asks Amway for tech investment? Betsy Devos toured a few hours then put down $100 million or whatever. Holmes then conned Rupert Murdoch, an media mogul parasite, into investing in order to deflect/deter his WSJ investigations.

I would say it wasn't the "in" thing to be on board with her. Again, she had investments from naive family billionaires andalso a board filled with 80 year old retired military/state dept who were prob not full capacity to turn down an attractive 30 yr old's offer to sit on a board and make $100k or whatever and nod along.