Sam Parr traces uBiome's collapse from $100 million in venture funding to FBI charges. Founder Jessica falsified her age for Forbes, billed patients without consent, and fled to Germany to avoid prosecution. The gut microbiome testing startup promised personalized medicine but delivered fraud.
It's about this company called uBiome. They measured different parts of your body to tell you all about your gut. In other words, they basically measured your poop. They did a crowdfunding campaign, they raised $300,000, and then they raised over $100 million from a bunch of people, including Andreessen Horowitz. But once they start getting a little bit popular, people start saying like, you know, is this really right? And so around 2017, this article comes out. Turns out she completely lied about her age. When she won the Forbes 30 Under 30, she was actually 42, which is crazy. Turns out that they were billing patients without their consent. In 2019, the FBI raided their offices. Founders committed tons of federal crimes. I think they face up to 95 years in prison. Jessica marries her co-founder, who's a German national, and they flee to Germany. And because of the way that the law worked, they basically have gotten away with it.
