'The Dropout' Part 2: Elizabeth Holmes begins marketing her Theranos devices

[Music] Silicon Valley built on ambition and innovation where everyone wants to change the world and make a billion dollars while they're at it Silicon Valley is the largest creation of wealth in a 50 square mile radius that anywhere in human history [Music] the allure of success drew in nineteen year old Elizabeth Holmes she had just dropped out of Stanford and had a grand vision to revolutionize healthcare by making blood testing more affordable and more accessible for all she opened her first office in this building and named her company Theron house a combination of the words therapy and diagnosis but instead of that skin patch idea she dreamt up in college she came to envision something else we've made it possible to run comprehensive laboratory tests from a tiny sample or a few drops of blood that could be taken from a finger she made it sound so simple the puncture will be made the collection tubes will now be held up to the drop and you'll see the blood wick into the channels the Nano tanner tubes are then removed and the sample can be processed immediately that sample was then put into a cartridge and then placed into this portable device which she claimed processed hundreds of blood tests which could detect diseases from STDs to even cancer in real-time the ability to be able to use a pinprick and test you right there at a doctor's office or even in a battlefield is revolutionary changes everything I said this could be the Holy Grail she named early prototypes of her invention the Edison after another revolutionary thinker Elizabeth became a master at marketing having gone through in in my own life losing people that I loved I couldn't think of anything that was more meaningful than being able to change what people go through when they say goodbye to soon from high-profile panels to TED talks that phrase a world in which no one ever has to say goodbye to soon became Elizabeth's mantra older world in which you don't have to say goodbye too soon world in which people don't have to say goodbye to say goodbye too soon she was a good storyteller that's part of her seductiveness which why she was able to raise all this money by February 2005 the 21 year old had already raised around six million dollars behind those piercing eyes was a peculiar young woman who seemed to survive on ambition alone I had this image of her as kind of like an unlike existence you know black quiet all alone she lived in an apartment which she wouldn't let me see she said it was just a one-bedroom the refrigerator just had bottled water and it she had a lot of you know green drinks and all the stuff that I you know I looked at and I said oh my god I care if you are what you eat what are you cringes best word to describe you mission rohini favorite place to visit my office one of Elizabeth's most bizarre characteristics was her obsession with Steve Jobs and with Apple Computer and imitating him and the company she even went after Steve Jobs his own right-hand man I'd like to now welcome one of my colleagues somebody I've worked with for over a decade dr. Ravi - Vania ah BtoB nyan had been head of software at Apple and was one of jobs his closest friends after retiring avi learned about Elizabeth Holmes and Thera knows when you find these ideas that can cut across everything it's huge and so clearly if this could be made to work then it was going to be hugely impactful was she selling you on the mission of fairness how did she come across she was definitely selling me on a vision for what she wanted to do in this realm of blood testing and making it something that was much more accessible than it's ever been so you joined the board join the board his involvement attracted others from Apple to join Thera knows like Anna aureola who had helped design the iPhone the opportunity was altruistic it was potentially humankind changing and I was very curious unfortunately I left 15,000 shares had Apple but c'est la vie autumn might have left Apple but to her surprise she certainly didn't leave all of Steve Jobs behind Elizabeth was very curious about Steve's attire and I explained to her that he was inspired by Sony's heritage of having a semi a Kia come in and create a lot of the line manager apparel and then I think she went often tracked down who Issei miacca weds and the rest is Couture history but honest says Elizabeth's transformation didn't end there her voice what she could figure out a surprising baritone was that it would likely cost her a few thousand dollars to get these tests done it was fake according to honor we didn't know that it wasn't her voice and so much later I think was that one of the company parties and maybe she had a little bit too much to drink or whatnot but she fell out a character and exposed that that wasn't necessarily her return voice in this interview with NPR from 2005 we hear a very different sounding Elizabeth no it hasn't well if I use traditional words to describe what we're doing it's hard when she came to me she didn't have a low voice she didn't know what was her voice like which is just like a typical undergrad student when I next saw her again was at the Harvard Medical School board meeting where she was being introduced she says with his lower voice like oh my god you know it's just pastiche whether it be the turtleneck the baritone the swagger the sense of belief in herself your captivating [Music] but then as the money poured in the problems poured out suddenly it wasn't just her voice that insiders were worried about I would never expect that anyone would behave the way that she behaved as a CEO and believe me I work for Steve Jobs I saw some crazy things hi everyone George Stephanopoulos here thanks for checking out the ABC News youtube channel if you'd like to get more video show highlights and watch live event coverage click on the right over here to subscribe to our channel and don't forget to download the ABC News app for breaking news alerts thanks for watching

Channel: ABC News

Views: 2,224,294

Keywords: elizabeth holmes, begins, marketing, her, theranos, devices, part 2, february, 2005, 21-year-old, entrepreneur, raised, million, company, former, employees, recruited, away, apple, steve jobs, abc news, 2020, theranos documentary, elizabeth holmes real voice, ABC, 2020 episodes, theranos 2020, blood test, revolutionary, walgreens, HBO, true story, scandal, update, news, theranos nightline, rebecca jarvis

Id: MjWS8hQk188

Length: 7min 41sec (461 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 16 2019