The $9B lie that taught Silicon Valley nothing.
Where we open — Holmes at the WSJ conference in October 2015, four months before Forbes dropped her net worth to zero. The scene sets the entire story.
19-year-old Stanford dropout. Channing Robertson's gamble. Real-Time Cures becomes Theranos. $6M raised in 14 months. The pitch that seduced the world.
The Edison ran 12 tests — not 200. Siemens machines running patient samples. A scientist who tried to raise the alarm and was ignored. Ian Gibbons dies by suicide in 2014.
Kissinger. Shultz. Mattis. The most impressive board in American corporate history — and the most useless as oversight. Tyler Shultz, George Shultz's grandson, finds the fraud. Walgreens spends $350M. Safeway does the same.
John Ioannidis publishes in JAMA. Carreyrou publishes in the WSJ. CMS finds "immediate jeopardy to patient health." FDA warning letters. Walgreens exits. The company voids two years of results. Fortress loans $100M to keep it alive.
Board accountability, response to evidence, secrecy vs. focus, compounding lies, and the difference between charisma and competence. Concrete, applicable, uncomfortable.
"You know, people try to take advantage of situations like this. We know what we're doing and we're very proud of it."
— Elizabeth Holmes, Wall Street Journal conference, October 2015
Four months later, Forbes dropped her net worth from $4.5 billion to zero.
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