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A couple of weeks ago, I binged the podcast The Dropout, about how Elizabeth Holmes ran Theranos (2003 – 2018), a company that promised to revolutionize the health care industry by cheaply running hundred of diagnostic tests on a single drop of blood within a closed device the size of a 3D printer. Theranos had patient centers inside 40 Walgreens in Arizona before it was exposed as a fraud in late 2015. Holmes received hundreds of millions in capital for her idea, which was at best a pipe dream and at worst a deliberate scam. Holmes gave a Ted Talk, covered countless magazines, met with then Vice President Joe Biden and was featured in a panel talk with President Bill Clinton at the 2015 Clinton Global Initiative yearly panel. The press buzzed about how this attractive woman, then in her early 30s, would change the world. The Theranos board of directors included Henry Kissinger, two former Senators, the former Secretary of Defense William Perry and former Secretary of State George Shultz, who championed Holmes and helped bring in capital and influence.
Shultz’s grandson, Tyler Shultz, worked in the Theranos lab and was an early whistleblower. He saw the way that results were skewed and data was cherry picked to mislead patients and investors. He knew the technology didn’t exist and that the vast majority of tests were run on commercially available equipment from competitors. Tyler talked to Wall St. Journalist John Carreyrou (eventual author of Bad Blood) after leaving the company. He was hit with so many legal threats by Theranos that his parents ended up spending half a million in legal fees. Once Carreyrou’s article came out in the WSJ in October, 2015 everything turned around. Holmes and her co-conspirator, Sunny Balwani, dug in their heels and continued to lie and grift. The company shut down in August of 2018 and Holmes and Balwani have been charged with multiple federal counts of fraud and conspiracy.
Last night HBO aired the documentary The Inventor, a look into how Holmes was able to run a billion dollar business perpetuated on a lie. While it offered a deeper look into the day to day lab operations than The Dropout podcast (I did not yet see the 20/20 special, aired Sunday) I came away wanting to hear more from the people who worked there. The film focused so much on Elizabeth Holmes that I got sick of seeing her smug face and hearing her fake deep voice. She did not do an on camera interview but footage of Theranos promotional material and interviews appeared throughout.
The film, by Alex Gibney (Going Clear, Enron: The Smartest Guys in The Room) focused primarily on Holmes, on her lies and on her image. Of course Holmes’ image, which she admitted was modeled on Steve Jobs, was how her company rose to success. However there were too many close shots of her and I ended up hating her about half an hour in, which was probably Gibney’s intent. (Read Kristy Puchko’s review at Pajiba, which describes it better than I can.) The real stars were the whistleblowers, Tyler Shultz and Erika Cheung, the other people who worked at Theranos, and the journalists who uncovered the scam. Unlike The Dropout, The Inventor did not include interviews with patients whose incorrect results from Theranos cost them money, time and peace of mind. They missed a real opportunity for that, but with so many other details to include, it’s understandable.
Photos credit: Getty and Screenshots from HBO
I thought the George and Tyler Shultz dynamic was really interesting. I couldn’t believe George Shultz didn’t believe his grandson, or would even really listen to him. Plus the amount of money he had to pay to try to stop David Bois from going after them. I hate David Bois even more as he somehow manages to threaten everyone a la Michael Cohen with Trump, but couldn’t get the 2000 presidential election votes counted. He stinks. Then he just cuts and run. Why isn’t he in trouble about this. I mean he was on the board too.
I thought the grandson-grandfather dynamic was extremely interesting as well. I think that most charismatic figures are really good at emotionally isolating their victims. In this particular case, Holmes (either wittingly or subconsciously — a case could be made for either) ingratiated her way into George Schulz’s personal life, with even Tyler admitting that she was “becoming one of the family.” I can imagine that those feelings of love and admiration were very real for the elder Schulz, and may have even felt on par for what he felt to his closest family members, so that it was difficult for him to differentiate between the trust he felt with his grandson and the trust he felt for Holmes. I want to read a ton more about charismatic archetypes (beyond dictators, serial killers, and cult leaders) because the hows and whys of their behaviors are just as fascinating as the hows and the whys of the ways people respond to them. I think it might have a lot to do with the idea that people respond more to stories than they do to facts, which was proffered by the behavioral economist Dan Ariely. But I also think that there are more complex interactions happening there, and I want to know more.
osito, interesting take. I think there is a book, maybe the sociopath next door?, that says women can be just as cunning and ruthless and charismatic in grabs for power and money as men – but when women display the same traits men do – especially arrogance, women tend to get punished by society at a much earlier age for hubris and ego.
So I am interested in all you said, but also am interested to see the interaction between gender and power and ideas of American exceptionalism/individualism in this case, as opposed to say, Swedish or British ideas of tall poppy syndrome, Jante’s law where the focus is on the system as opposed to the individual. I don’t know if I am explaining myself well so apologies if I am not, but
tldr: I hope this doesn’t mean women are barred from undertaking ventures like this again. I hope society will not use Holmes as an example of women’s innate duplicity or inability. and of course I still hope she goes to jail.
Rich people are rich because they actually ignore the advice of many and do their own thing, invent their rules. This carries over to their family. Money first, truth last.
she is a monster and a sociopath. But such are the times we live in. We exist in the world were Holmes and Trump are success stories.
Let’s hope Trump’s story ends where Holmes story is going to end: prison.
your word in God’s (or whoever’s) ear.
uh…she is in big trouble and has federal charges against her no doubt headed to prison or has to pay out bigtime. In no way will she be trusted again with a start up.
I watched the 20/20 special. They said she is currently trying to get investors for some new “invention”. The nerve of this b*tch. She probably thinks she isn’t going to jail.
I realize that. I am merely pointing out the fact that this woman has been fooling the world for give or take 15 (!!!!) years, scammed the investors out of nine billion $ and truly believed her own hype.
She has a rich new fiancé !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
She has fiancee for now. People like her in the longrun run out of grace go dows in history as charlatans with a bad name. Even Trumps time is coming, even in his old age.
Tanguerita it was 900 million
the first whistle blower killed himself.
She and the guy from the Fyre Festival are the same in so many ways I’m just shocked that people believed in them and gave them a lot of money wtf also the fact that she changed her voice? …
I want to know how she got the elite of the elite of the Republican establishment to sit on her board.
I just read the above comment that she is still trying to get investors for some new “invention.” Just like Billy McFarland tried to sell scam concert tickets after the Fyre failure.
I watched the 20/20 special the other day and wow, textbook sociopath!! I can’t believe how crazy the whole story is/was!?! Tyler is a brave soul because everyone, including his own grandfather, was against him. I would love a more in depth look at what he endured!
I’m very intrigued by her entire story. I watched the 20/20 special. One of the first professors she spoke to about this told her this would NOT work. This professor was a female physician. Holmes then pursued male physicians. She literally manipulated so many people! It’s crazy! With her obsession with Steve Jobs & fake deep voice ….. I just can’t believe she got away with it as long as she did.
The movie will be insane !
I noticed the same thing. She really targeted older, wealthy men who were waning in importance and puffed them up so they gave her money. She is so manipulative it’s mind boggling!
I need to watch the documentary, but I cannot wait for the film with Jennifer Lawrence. What perfect casting.
abc has a series (the dropout) on her and I viewed it this weekend. holmes is a stone cold monster. it’s telling that so many older, white privileged men bought into the scam. and the grandson of George Schultz’s, who had to make an appointment to see grandpa to try to warn him of the fraud, is quite insightful into that world. grandpa dismissed the grandson’s warning and told him flat out he was wrong and he was standing by holmes.
I guess the only bit of satisfaction is that they lost the millions they invested; although it do have pity for the middleclass investors who thought they were putting their retirement money into something useful — based largely on who they saw as the board of directors/investors.
It wasn’t only White men. The head of the company was Indian…she was dating him for a while. He was also charged.
If you’ve read Bad Blood, Sunny is just as much of a psychopath as she is. Hope they both go to jail. She made sure her board was full of elderly doting powerful men who had absolutely no background in science or medicine.
It’s an interesting story, but honestly, this kind of shit can get people killed, so it’s infuriating at the same time. I remember this product being a “big deal” concept because it was thought it could drop the costs of healthcare substantially and reduce workloads. A single drop of blood is a minuscule amount of biomatter to test for a full range of issues. I’m amazed so many got taken in by it when anybody with a chronic illness that requires routine blood testing (i.e. thyroid, diabetes, immune disease, etc.) could tell you how much they gave in one sitting just to get correct results. These doctors should have known better and are a great example of how the capitalist model for American medicine is hindering true progression.
During the 20/20 special they spoke with people who said when they went to get their blood taken it was done with a needle and not a prick and they took a lot of blood. When they called to complain the company never replied. Such a scam from beginning to end. The fact this sh*t didn’t have to be FDA approved is so gross to me.
Maybe hindsight is just 20/20 but jeez she looks cray cray, those eyes…and the nonsense jabberwocky speak in that awful voice… Has anyone seen Galaxy Quest — it feels like we’re the alien race seeking out Tim Allen et al as our savior. I mean, how gullible can we all be…in so many different areas of society?
She’s really creepy. Her voice is creepy.
Watched The Dropout. I don’t understand how she deceived so many people. The whole concept of her top secret technology in a small machine just did not make sense. One drop of blood. No.
plus seeing the real story of how they tested the blood using current tech and then spinning the whole thing to try to make excuses. Again just no.
And at the end one of her ex employees ran into her and she admitted she was working on something else new. WTF. Who can be stupid enough to back another company of hers.
I’ve read that she is engaged now to some guy who is an heir to a hotel company….I think that was in a recent Vanity Fair article about her.
On 20/20 they said she was engaged. I can’t even believe it though. Who? What guy? Why would he? I just don’t…
His name is William ‘Billy’ Evans…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6756663/Elizabeth-Holmes-engaged-hotel-heir-Billy-Evans-works-driverless-car-start-up.html
@ Tourmaline
Thanks for the link. I still don’t understand why any guy would get into a relationship with her knowing damn well the unethical sh*t she did. Wow. Plus I’m pretty sure she’s going to jail for a long time.
Her fiancé is wearing a MAGA hat in one of the photos! Perfect, just perfect.
yeah, recently someone on twitter leaked some of her snapchat photos of the two of them together at burning man, etc. she’s practically unrecognizable in them without her steve jobs outfit and sleek hair.
I wonder if she got rid of the fake voice she was pretending to have. On 20/20 they had audio of her real voice. This woman is insane.
I remember when Theranos’s and her profile were at an all time high, her story and profile covered a lot of argentine media. I used to think “wow, to have such a brilliant mind”. She has a brilliant mind for scamming.
If I were him, I would RUN!!!!!! Seriously, sociopaths are charming and manipulative with every breath! I hope this guy watches every special on her he can and then runs far, far away.
Poster girl for those who take advantage of white feminism.
ABC put the whole 20/20 episode on The Dropout on YouTube if you are looking to watch it.
Bad Blood is the best book I’ve read all year. I haven’t seen/heard the shows, but the book devoted a great deal of space to the whistleblowers. READ THIS BOOK!
Agreed. It was fascinating especially since we lived in Silicon Valley for years and have connections to some of the people in the book.
Her voice was so bothersome. I hated listening to her speak. I can’t understand how she ever came to decide making herself sound like a man was a good idea. I would think that would be more distracting when talking to someone than helpful. Her big crazy eyes and the story of her trying to pass of her Siberian Husky as part wolf was just as strange. The most recent couple pics I’ve seen of her and her fiancee she looks like a normal woman. Her eyes look normal and she looks a little more relaxed.
Shallow as they may be, I left the documentary with the following questions.
1) Is the perpetually disheveled hair intentional? A subliminal nod to the brilliant-but-frazzled genius professor trope (see: Doc from “Back to the Future”).
2) Who green lit that MC Hammer idea? The cringe was unbearable.
3) Just how unimpressed with Elizabeth is the Stanford professor who tried to explain that the idea was a non-starter?
4) Did they use the first Axe Cap building to film the interview with Tyler Schultz?