Elizabeth Holmes was a young, Stanford dropout who founded Theranos, a company that claimed to revolutionize blood testing by developing methods that could use surprisingly small volumes of blood, such as from a fingerprick. By 2015, Forbes had named Holmes the youngest and wealthiest self-made female billionaire in the United States on the basis of a $9-billion valuation of her company.
However, it later emerged that Theranos’ technology was not as revolutionary as Holmes had claimed. The company’s blood tests were often inaccurate, and its business practices were highly questionable. In 2018, Theranos was dissolved, and Holmes was charged with fraud. In 2022, she was found guilty on four counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. She is currently awaiting sentencing.
Holmes’ story is a cautionary tale about the dangers of ambition and the importance of truth. It is also a reminder that even the most successful people are not immune to making mistakes.
Here are some additional details about Elizabeth Holmes and her involvement with Theranos:
- Holmes was born in Washington, D.C., in 1984. She is the daughter of Christian Holmes IV, a wealthy venture capitalist, and Noel Holmes, a homemaker.
- Holmes attended Stanford University, where she studied chemical engineering. She dropped out of Stanford in 2003 to found Theranos.
- Theranos was founded on the idea that blood testing could be made more convenient and affordable by using small amounts of blood. The company’s technology was based on a proprietary blood-testing device called the Edison.
- Theranos raised hundreds of millions of dollars from investors, including media mogul Rupert Murdoch and former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
- Theranos’ technology was initially praised by doctors and other experts. However, in 2015, a series of articles in The Wall Street Journal raised questions about the accuracy of Theranos’ blood tests.
- Theranos was eventually shut down in 2018. Holmes was charged with fraud in 2018. She was found guilty on four counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in January 2022. She is currently awaiting sentencing.
Holmes’ story has been the subject of numerous books and articles. It was also the subject of the 2019 HBO documentary “The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Randy Cooper has been in marketing technology more than 35 years. He has a Bachelors of Science in Information Technology, with a focus on web development, from the University of Phoenix. He has a Masters in Business Administration, with a focus on digital marketing, from Liberty University. In 2009, Randy founded Buzz My Biz, a consulting company focused on giving enterprise-level marketing results to small and medium-sized businesses. When he isn’t pounding away on a keyboard, he enjoys watching the Atlanta⚾️Braves, hiking, and working in the yard.
