1:05:50These Are Some Of Silicon Valley's Craziest Startup Scams
From My First Million · Published Jul 5, 2022 · Watch on YouTube
TL;DR
The video discusses three major startup frauds: Ubiome (fake microbiome testing, founder lied about age, fled to Germany after FBI raid), QuadrigaCX (Canadian crypto exchange, founder possibly faked death or was murdered after $215M customer funds disappeared), and Fast (one-click checkout startup with ~$100M funding but only $600K lifetime revenue and a CEO with a fraudulent past in Australia).
Key insights
- Ubiome founders Jessica Richman (actually 42, claimed under 30 for Forbes 30 Under 30) and Zach Apte billed patients without consent, charged Medicare $3,000 per test, took $12M in shares off the tabl
- QuadrigaCX founder (nicknamed "Butters") was discovered to have been running scams on a black-hat hacker forum under the handle "Scepter" before founding the exchange; he never actually held customer
- Fast CEO Dom (Dominic Holland) had a previous Australian company (tow.co) that ended with a $15M legal dispute and unpaid debts; he branded himself as "Dom" to hide his full name from Google searches.
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