That raises a final possible parallel to Holmes: Some have made the argument that she was to a degree herself a victim of the Silicon Valley funding machine. Some venture capitalists, the logic goes, saw the marketing potential of her story and image, but avoided scrutinizing her abilities and ideas. As dramatized in the Hulu series “The Dropout,” this made Holmes little more than a tool for generating alpha, to be cast aside if and when anything went wrong. Do Kwon, certainly, will come out of this more grievously damaged than any of the big shops that gave him money.