That Billionaire Who Dropped Out Of Uni To Start A Business Turned Out To Be A Sham

In March of 2015 I wrote an article titled ‘Meet the World’s Youngest Female Billionaire, a Medical Genius and Uni Dropout’, but it has recently come to light that she is actually only one of those three things - a university drop out.

Elizabeth Holmes, now 32, the self-made billionaire who dropped out of Stanford university at the age of 19 to start her own company called ‘Theranos’, is now being revealed to be not quite all she promised.

Her company, once valued at around $9 billion, has turned out to be a medical house of cards not really made up of any of the wonderful new science she promised - and it’s starting to come down around her.

But, we weren’t the only people fooled by the biotech sweetheart. Media and investors were besotted both by her, and by her technology that purportedly could test a small vial of blood for hundreds of diseases, allowing traditional blood tests to be replaced with finger pricks. The New Yorker gave her a glowing profile, she featured on a few covers and made it onto the Forbes self-made billionaire list in 2015, but Forbes have since adjusted her net worth to $0. Ouch.

She was exposed by Wall Street Journal to be using the technologies of other companies to remain afloat, Holmes has now been passed a two year ban from operating a lab, and her company has crumbled. It was later revealed that all of the investors who had poured $9 billion into the start-up were were told by her that she would only take the money on the condition they wouldn’t ask questions about how her technology actually worked.

Google Ventures contacted Holmes, wanting to know about the technology as they were interested in investing in the company - but never even heard back from Holmes. So they sent one of their venture capitalists to one of her Wellness centres based at Walgreens, and they noticed that several vials of blood were taken - not the few drops that Theranos promises to need.

However, other than her failed business, an interesting expose by Nick Bilton for Vanity Fair talks about some of the weirder details of Holmes’ business and leadership.

Bilton revealed Homes’ intense admiration for Steve Jobs, and her love of polo necks in honour of her idol. Employees of the company have revealed that she keeps the temperature of the company headquarters chilly to compensate for her daily uniform of a black Jobs-esque polo neck.

She also has a serious security detail, with anything up to four bodyguards flanking her at all times. They refer to her as ‘eagle 1’. Yes, like in Princess Diaries when the Queen’s team say things like ‘the eagle has flown’ over their radios. But this woman does it in real life.

(Photo: Getty)

Her employees are forbidden from talking about their work at Theranos, and for one scientist - Ian Gibbons - this was to have tragic consequences.

An accomplished British scientist who had a slew of degrees from Cambridge University, Ian had spent 30 years working on diagnostic and therapeutic products, and was named chief scientist by Holmes in 2005.

He realised that the results from the blood tests using Theranos’ technology were off, and therefore the technology was ineffective. He realised that what Holmes had was an idea, not the final product. So for years, while Holmes put her fundraising efforts to work, hiring marketers and salespeople and raising billions in funding, Gibbons worked tirelessly behind the scenes to actually get her idea up and running - even though she was telling the world it already was.

According to his wife, Rochelle Gibbons, he had repeatedly warned Holmes that the technology was not ready for the public - but Holmes was preparing to open “Theranos Wellness Centers” in several Walgreens across Arizona.

“Ian was a real obstacle for Elizabeth. He started to be very vocal. They kept him around to keep him quiet.”

On the 16th May 2013 he received a call from one of her assistants requesting him for a meeting the next day, and he was beside himself thinking that she was planning on firing him. Later that evening, overwhelmed with worry, Ian tried to commit suicide.

He was rushed to the hospital, but sadly a week later, with his wife by his side, he died. His wife called Holmes’ office to break the news, and spoke to her secretary. When she next heard from Holmes, no sympathies were exchanged - Holmes demanded that any confidential papers pertaining to Theranos be sent to the office immediately.

The technology her company is based on has been proven to be a lie, and everything is coming down around her but she has refused to admit that her company is a sham.

Theranos may well eventually actually make a product that works very well. But for now, their tests are not producing accurate results and could actually be putting people in danger, and Holmes needs to stop ignoring the people pointing this out.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments.

Sources: Vanity Fair, Wall Street Journal, New Yorker, CNBC

Lead image: Getty