I believe in 2012 she really thought it was possible (in D9 she said, hey we get 8 volts, all we need to charge an iPhone is 5 Volt) .
I think that, as a biology grad, she did not know the difference between Volts and Watts (most people don't, and dBs are even worse).
10 minutes later she landed tons of money, big shot investors, tons of positive media coverage, and theaters full of people cheering.
It was going very well, so it must be true right.
She had 0 experience, and believed it's going to work.
After all that money, cheers, big shot investors, and especially media coverage, it takes great courage to say "hey, sorry, it doesn't work, never had a chance, I just didn't know the difference between volts and watts, true I learned about it in high school, but I was sick that day, here are 10c on your dollar, sorry"
I don't know many people who would do that, would you?
Having said that, saying, since 2014 she was just bluntly lying (she must have known watts and dBs by then).