How Elizabeth Holmes sold the idea of Theranos to employees, investors: Nightline Part 1/2

Holmes' technology promised to run hundreds of tests from just a drop or two of blood, but it was a promise she would never fulfill.

[MimiMadness]

So at 19 she claimed to have invented technology that she didn’t have and no one ever checked her? They just blindly believed her?

[karlwa]

Maybe those extra chemical engineering classes would have helped

[taufiqteo]

no one:
Elizabeth Holmes:
👁 👁
👃🏻
👄

[jackiesue]

As a lab tech for 35 years I knew this was physically impossible. Imagine my surprise when I saw a sign outside the drugstore!

[sneakyix]

"Obsessed with Steve Jobs" should have been the first red flag.

[MarieAntoinetteandherlittlesis]

What if her 2 very last classes were titled "Why it's scientifically impossible to test a drop of blood for 250 diseases." And "Ethics."

[ardikapradnya]

Expectation: "Theranos is the Apple of healthcare".
Reality: "Theranos is the Fyre Festival of healthcare"

[pete]

It's just so hard to imagine that an investor would hand over 100M, without hiring some expert for like 50K to go spend a week or 2 investigating/researching the company to check if they actually had a working product and business model.

[np]

The fact she became a billionaire without doing anything real is actually hilarious and shows these institutional investors are not as smart as we think lol

[ugie]

"you swear to tell the truth"
*fake voice* "i do"

[mantis_surf]

She is not a Self-made success story. Her father was Vice President of Enron and was was worth millions.

[NealB]

I have to give my PCP a lot of credit. I asked him about Theranos a decade ago when Holmes was making big headlines. He laughed and said they're faking it and it would never work. He was spot on accurate.

[KiddMarleyHendrix]

I'm a 6 foot 3 black man and her voice is deeper than mine

[emikikuno]

Elizabeth dropping out of college because she thought she didn't need a few more classes reminds me of the "Dunning-Kruger effect". The less knowledge you have on a subject, the more you risk being over-confident about said knowledge, while the more you learn the more you realize how much you don't know. Had she taken those classes, she might have realized she wasn't the expert she thought she was.

[tylerdurden]

“I was at the point where a few more chemical engineering classes wasn’t necessary for what I wanted to apparently they were honey

[dinnerandashow]

The reply email sent by Holmes says it all.
When a narcissist is caught they get outraged. No guilt, no shame.
They will even attack the person that exposed them.

[daibm]

She tried so hard to become the next Steve Jobs and she ended up as Steve Jobless LOL

[MrPaparr]

never trust a girl who doesn't blink and has a sound similar to F650 Diesel truck

[JustCallMeAnnie]

I’m mostly amazed that Walgreens cut the deal without having any medical proof.

[paulninan]

I'm still amazed how Elizabeth Holmes sold the idea to so many billionaire investors without ever being questioned about the practicality of it. Even if her idea was plausible in the real world, it would take lots of knowledge combining biochemistry, medicine, and engineering. Considering she dropped out after freshman year, there was no way anyone like her could have that much combined knowledge and experience to achieve something like that. I wonder, if the investors ever asked her who developed these machines and what's the principle behind it? Granted, hype can push you a long way in Silicon Valley, but this was not developing a software app, she was playing with people's lives. How come these investors didn't worry about the risk factor?