A Tech Startup Too “Good” To Be True

Joanna Smith-Griffin, the founder of edtech startup AllHere, was charged with defrauding investors of $10 million. Was she led astray by a Silicon Valley myth?

Joanna Smith-Griffin, founder of the ill-fated AI startup AllHere, which was intended to improve school attendance. It won many awards before it ended up in bankruptcy and Smith-Griffin was charged with fraud.

Welcome to Black Sheep, a spin-off publication of my serialized memoir. SMIRK. While SMIRK was a deep dive into my unusual personal and professional relationship with one unique white-collar fraudster— Martin Shkreli — Black Sheep takes a broader view and tells the stories of a wider range of business crimes and failures.

This publication will examine cultural themes and motives that contribute to lying, cheating, stealing, and related self-inflicted disasters; the impacts of those events; and the people who play starring roles in these dramas. I find these tales both cautionary and fascinating; I hope you will, too.

Don’t be evil.

Google used to proclaim this in the 2000s as it rapidly ballooned into the world’s largest search engine. I remember the period vividly. When I was a loc…