Theranos: when a sociopath convinces investors | Company Forensics

this video was brought to you by the slight bean agency get the design team behind slide bean to redo your slides go to slidebean.com agency and get fifty dollars off on your first project her rock city gays and baritone boys lured you in then her idea blew your mind one drop of blood hundreds of results theiranos was going to revolutionize the healthcare industry and elizabeth holmes led this revolution investors blindly trusted her she rocked magazine covers and the media called her the female steve jobs her company was worth billions but it was all a lie how did one person fool the entire world well we'll tell you all about it in this episode of company forensics the birth of pandora's box by age nine elizabeth holmes had envisioned her time machine by high school she was fluent in mandarin and sold c plus plus compilers and had her sights on becoming a billionaire she wanted to study medicine but was afraid of needles so she enrolled in chemical engineering at stanford there she met channing robertson and insisted he let her work in his lab a lab mind you in which mostly phds worked not first-year students during her first college break she spent a stint in singapore working at a lab testing for sars and it was there that she began questioning current medical blood tests one needed to draw blood then transferred to another device for analysis once results were in medications came from a different place and medical follow-up from yet another place it was a labor-intensive error-inducing process unchanged in decades to a point she was right as 70 of errors in testing occur before the lab tests the sample once back at stanford she began working on an idea to obtain not just one but hundreds of results quickly from drops of blood instead of traditional vials her pace was relentless it took her less than a year to file her first patent a smart drug delivery patch but her obsession was blood testing holmes believed in the power of a single drop of blood she was so adamant that she dropped out of stanford to form theranos even if her professor channing robertson told her not to and she did it anyway at just 19 years old she formed her own company real-time cures but that first name was ineffective so she eventually changed it to theranos from therapy and diagnosis she convinced robertson to form a part of theranos as a technical advisor robertson introduced her to several venture capitalists including tim draper who gave theranos the first million dollars and it didn't end there elizabeth holmes took the world by storm she had raised more than 30 million dollars by 2006 and 400 million dollars by 2014. investors valued theranos at nine billion dollars holmes was now the youngest self-made female billionaire and theranos had also some very big names backing it up board members included former secretaries of state george schultz and henry kissinger new england patriots owner robert kraft get 1 million dollars controversial figured betsy devos added 100 million and even rupert murdoch pledged 125 million they all believed in her idea but one question remained unanswered what exactly did theranos offer the promise of a revolution holmes aura was enigmatic she spent all day at work vacations were unnecessary so was coffee forget the billions she didn't drink coffee that's just amazing her daily routine consisted of a fancy turtleneck uniform little sleep and vegan shakes but when she walked into a room her energy drew people's attention with her powerful gaze and low almost murmuring tone like her idol steve jobs she wanted to change the world thoroughness wasn't just a blood test its aptly named edison machines would eliminate or improve error-prone areas by automating them testing would happen in sight with results available in just hours plus blood waste would decrease and so would cost a cholesterol check today runs for about 30 dollars but holmes promised a cost of just three dollars some people even entered theranos test labs journalist joseph rago explained that the process was stripped a technician increased blood flow to the fingers by warming them then drew a few droplets of blood which landed in a small receptacle called a nanotaper within the same lab this nanotanker traveled through analyzers and delivered results by the time he walked out the door it seemed perfect but you know what the show is about hype and powerful alliances home was at the center of the media universe thanks to her promise of a better tomorrow supermarket giant safeway decided to invest 350 million to retrofit 800 locations with their nose clinics for in-store tests the cleveland clinic joined forces with homes to spark up innovation reduce costs and increased visit turnover during a fox news interview both homes and cleveland clinic ceo toby cosgrove even spoke of getting ahead of diseases with great fanfare holmes announced that theranos had partnered with pharma giant gsk in 2015 its first test for herpes simplex 1 received fda approval outside a laboratory testing environment amidst all this seeming success holmes ran such a tight ship no one knew how thanos operated which caught the attention of one doctor mystery stanford university's own dr john iwanidis notice something unusual medical innovation goes through constant reviews by other medical community peers which ensures the validity of the design and the safety for patients but theranos had divulged no reviews no white papers nothing such practices are called stealth research and its goal is to prevent others from copying of course to which homes openly admitted but ionitis felt stealth research was paradoxical stealth research treats total ambiguity about what evidence can be trusted in a mix of possibly brilliant ideas aggressive corporate announcements and mass media hype he said he wrote a column on the topic and used theranos as an example and in no time a legal team sought a retraction from him the company even pressured ionides to co-author an editorial with holmes in some major journal to clarify that the fda had approved theranos which was enough evidence of its efficacy but he said no and he wasn't the only suspicious person meet journalist john kerry rooney which aimed at their nose and didn't spare any bullets in his first article he uncovered that theron's used traditional methods and not its edison devices to analyze blood the technology displayed only flawed tests on their facade of a technological breakthrough holmes fired back the same day the article appeared in a television appearance she said that this is what happens when you work to change things and first they think you're crazy then they fight you and all of a sudden you change the world but those damning articles started an avalanche that would eventually bury theranos's reputation in 2015 safeway pulled out of the alliance citing delay testing and unanswered questions some safeway employees confirmed that their nose technicians first drew out blood with their system and then with a traditional syringe method others reported misdiagnosis one employee even got results that indicated prostate cancer when he retested in another lab the results came back normal then there's that big alliance with gsk of which gsk had no recollection according to a spokesperson for the company he said i cannot find any evidence that we've done business with them in recent years holmes then insisted that they had worked with gsk ever since 2008 but theranos wasn't even in business back then in 2015 an fda inspection showed that their noses labs were mishandling products and not following processes in compliance with fda standards so the agency quickly backtracked its approval of the herpes test and suspended theranos soon after citing poor quality management and what did elizabeth holmes do well tweet about it of course consequences 2016 was a bloodbath no drops this time the centers for medicare and medicaid services cms concluded that theranos post immediate jeopardy to patients safety as it couldn't reliably diagnose the need for blood thinners the company failed yet another regulatory inspection so the government revoked all licenses and sanctioned the company which had to close down its facilities and lay off 41 of its staff by the end of the year theranos was under investigation by the cms the justice department the sec and the u.s attorney's office by the list and it didn't end there in 2017 the company faced more losses from walgreens investment funds and the state of arizona court of law 2018 the sec charged theranos holmes and former president ramich balawani with fraud because they deceived investors into believing that theranos could work as promised and it didn't and holmes settled her penalty consisted of five hundred thousand dollars giving up 19 million shares of the company and couldn't have a leadership position for 10 years but one he didn't settle and both weren't home free on june 15 2018 both faced charges of fraud schemes and theranos crumbled by september of 18 the company shut down its valuation zero the homes and balwani trial still hasn't begun because of the pandemic but if they are found guilty they could face up to 20 years in prison one can't help but wonder how did she do it the mastermind it seems now that holmes was the embodiment of lies from her voice which according to some employees is fake to an authoritarian attitude a former employee told abc that holmes would fire anybody who disagreed with her that's a nice work environment to holmes all that mattered was theranose even if it meant lying and deceiving a vanity fair investigation revealed that the board of directors pushed holmes to confirm the theranos results with other methods if those results differed they had enough money to fix any issue she agreed but then withheld any findings and offered evasive answers when the board pressured her solution was simple she overhauled the board of directors then there was the secrecy ionitis found suspicious the excuse seemed perfect if nothing leaked there was no chance of copycats but it was more than that with a robust legal corps behind her thuranos relied heavily on a non-disclosure agreement and litigation threats to keep people quiet even members of the board holmes could openly deceive customers and even employees with fake blood tests and deceitful tours knowing no one would speak up internal departments couldn't interact and communication between them was very limited the employees only knew partial truths and a lot of lies divide and conquer always works home was able to keep employees blind to the troubles the company faced the multiple part vanity fair investigation revealed that holmes told her employees that theranus had over 300 tests already working but didn't tell them that most of them were in the research phase the least of deceptions and manipulation is long leading many to believe that holmes is a sociopath and a narcissist but to some including herself she might be a visionary willing to do what it took to succeed and that's where the danger lies but she doesn't care because pending trial rumors are she's trying to start another company it seems as some people just never know when to stop thanks a lot for watching tell us if you enjoyed our version of theron story and we'll see you next week [Music]

Channel: Slidebean

Views: 359,200

Rating: 4.8181357 out of 5

Keywords: slidebean, caya slidebean, company forensics, startups, startups 101, elizabeth holmes, theranos, theranos ceo, theranos story, theranos scandal, theranos investors, theranos scandal explained, elizabeth holmes sociopath, theranos whistleblower, theranos elizabeth holmes, how theranos failed, startup company, theranos founder, elizabeth holmes theranos, caya ceo, elizabeth, holmes, technology, fraud, scandal, scam, business failure, theranos documentary, silicon valley girl

Id: qUFHEZOfQ0k

Length: 11min 56sec (716 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 29 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/GiveBells]

HIGHLY recommend the documentary "The Inventor: Out For Blood In Silicon Valley" about the Theranos scandal. Absolutely INSANE story.

[u/DrHackenstein]

Here is another one about the topic:

Theranos - Silicon Valley's Greatest Distaster [24:38]

Haven't watched either yet, though.

[u/insanityarise]

Yet another reason healthcare shouldn't be considered a commodity.

[u/mutantsloth]

Is she ‘diagnosably’ a sociopath tho

[u/a_n_g_e_l_a_n_d_i_a]

Anyone else seen the ads for Everlywell?

[u/wangsneeze]

I don’t know how somebody with money can look into that woman’s eyes and say “yes take my money.”

She looks like a fucking robot.

[u/okawei]

Great podcast about this called the drop out

[u/nautilusanchorsu]

Next up: Trevor Milton

[u/littlebirdieb33]

Having recently been the victim of investment fraud, seeing her face makes me feel ill.