My , how the mighty have accrue . Elizabeth Holmes , the ego - made billionaire who founded Silicon Valley biotech darlingTheranos , is in , well , deep dickhead . Once valued at around $ 9 billion , Theranos turned out to be a medical house of circuit board , built more on buzzwords and arcanum than any real skill .
Not intimate with Holmes and her web of Trygve Halvden Lie ? She dropped out of Stanford when she was 19 to create Theranos , a company that aim to mete out full parentage tests with just the tool of a finger rather than a full withdrawal , with the service of a rotatory blood - testing machine she named Edison . This would save patient role and the health care community meg , plus be an actual lifesaver , specially for people who are terrorize of needles .
Update 10/11 : One of Theranos ' investors , San Francisco - based hedging fund Partner Fund Management , hassued the bloodline - testing startup for around $ 100 millionto convalesce its investment and legal fee . Partner alleges that Theranos lie , while Holmes ' company traverse any error when it was raise capital .
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Update 10/6 : Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmespenned an opened letterto stakeholder announcing the closure of the blood - testing startup ’s labs and wellness center , resulting in layoffs for 340 employee . That ’s about 40 % of the troupe ’s men . Holmes enjoin the fellowship will focus solely on its miniLab engineering , which purportedly provides diagnostics through small - volume examination – fundamentally , Theranos still go for to make in effect pinprick rakehell tests a realism .
Update 11/29 : A radical of investor , include Robertson Stephens & Co. and Hilary Taubman - Dye , file a new lawsuit against Theranos , hop to turn it into a class action suit .
She was n’t just some random unicorn in a valley purportedly full of them , either – the media and investors were obsess with her . She had aglowing profileinThe New Yorker , covers onFortuneandInc.magazines , andForbeslisted her on itsrichest ego - made billionaire char name in 2015(Forbeshas since adjusted hernet worth to zero ) .
There ’s only one diminished , flyspeck issue : it was entire Irish bull . Theranos – which had its tests available at Walgreens ! – was just using other companies ' technology to stick around directionless . Since being exposed by theWall Street Journal , Holmes has receive a two - class ban from labs , and the company has crumble . But that ’s not all!This first-class exclusive publish inVanity Fairdetails Holmes ' quirks and taste for secrecy , all of which should be a monition : when a 19 - year - old dropout claim to have revolutionize time - tested science , it ’s a title best met with skepticism , not billions of dollar and blind faith . You should really scan Nick Bilton ’s entireVFpiece to get the full film , but these are a few of the highlights .
She was a micromanager
" At Theranos , Holmes was founder , C.E.O. , and chairwoman . There was n’t a decision – from the number of American masthead framed in the company ’s hallway ( they are ubiquitous ) to the compensation of each new hire – that did n’t cross her desk . "
She thinks she’s Steve Jobs
" At Theranos , Holmes preferred that the temperature be maintained in the mid-60s , which facilitated her preferred daily uniform of a fatal turtleneck with a puffy black vest – a homogeneity that she had borrowed from her idol , the former Steve Jobs . "
Like, she REALLY idolizes him
" Besides the turtle , Holmes ’s proprietary origin - analysis equipment , which she named ' Edison ' after Thomas Edison , resemble Jobs ’s NeXT data processor . "
She employed a government-level security detail
" She will the warfare elbow room for her car – she is often surrounded by her security system detail , which sometimes numbers as many as four men , who ( for safety equipment reasons ) come to to the young C.E.O. as ' Eagle 1 ' – and headed to the airport . "
She kept the technology a secret from investors…
" She took the money on the condition that she would not give away to investors how her technology actually worked , and that she had last say and contain over every aspect of her company . "
… and she couldn’t explain it anyway
" WhenThe New Yorkerreporter necessitate about Theranos ’s engineering , she respond , more or less cryptically , ' a chemical science is do so that a chemical chemical reaction take place and generates a sign from the chemical fundamental interaction with the sampling , which is translated into a effect , which is then reviewed by certified laboratory personnel office . ' "
A Google investor discovered that the tests weren’t just a pinprick
" Eventually , Google Ventures sent a speculation capitalist to a Theranos Walgreens Wellness Center to take the radical pinprick blood psychometric test . As the V.C. sat in a chair and had several large vials of blood draw from his branch , far more than a pinprick , it became apparent that something was amiss with Theranos ’s promise . "
Her dad worked for a little family company called Enron
" She babble about how she did n’t play with Barbies as a child , and how her father , Christian Holmes IV , who worked in environmental technology for Enron before going on to work in a number of senior politics jobs in Washington , was one of her idols . "
Even her poor employees couldn’t humblebrag about their jobs
" On LinkedIn , one former employee noted next to his job description , ' I worked here , but every time I say what I did I get a letter from a lawyer . I probably will get a missive from a lawyer for writing this . ' "
The labs were so badly run that they were putting lives in danger
" regulator from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services , which regulates research lab , visited the labs and found major inaccuracy in the examination being done on patients . ( The Newark lab was black market by an employee who was criticise for insufficient laboratory experience . ) C.M.S. also soon discovered that some of the mental test Theranos was execute were so inaccurate that they could go away patient role at risk of internal bleeding , or of diagonal among those prone to blood clots . "
The lesson ? " The Emperor ’s New Clothes " is as true in today ’s technologically advanced companionship as it ’s always been .
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