anti-penuership
When most people think of entrepreneurship, they think of innovators who change the landscape and build something new. It’s easy to imagine the title entrepreneur as a badge of creativity and pride given to someone who had an idea and saw it through. But what happens when someone who calls themselves an entrepreneur builds a billion dollar company on lies?
In 2003, Elizabeth Holmes started a company promising to deliver quality blood test analysis with only a few drops of blood, despite hearing multiple claims that her idea would not work, Holmes persisted and quickly raised millions in venture capital.
In 2013, Holmes announced the creation of in-store blood collection centers, and people quickly considered her one of the few genius and great business owners. Forbes recognized her as the youngest female self made billionaire, it seemed like she was on top of the world.
Howerer, by 2015 and in the years that followed, people began to uncover certain truths about Theranos (the name of the company she had). The tests were not passing certain standards and were not accurate in their data. Even worse, the company was lying about the quality and accuracy of their tests. The company was also lying about how much money it was making. It was a fraudulent business.
After these revelations, holmes business, her passion, quickly began to fall apart, the billons that she had supposedly made were re-estimated to be nothing. The following days were filled with lawsuits and reclaiming of assets and money to people who were promised that it was an honest, profitable business.
The final nail in the coffin was her criminal conviction for fraud and conspiracy.
A sad extra tragedy was the death of her idea. The idea of proper blood analysis from only a few drops is a stretch. However, the idea of systemizing and making blood draws a more simplified experience is not without merit. Although laced with lies and deceit, she had actual vision, and her business could have been successful.
In 2003, Elizabeth Holmes started a company promising to deliver quality blood test analysis with only a few drops of blood, despite hearing multiple claims that her idea would not work, Holmes persisted and quickly raised millions in venture capital.
In 2013, Holmes announced the creation of in-store blood collection centers, and people quickly considered her one of the few genius and great business owners. Forbes recognized her as the youngest female self made billionaire, it seemed like she was on top of the world.
Howerer, by 2015 and in the years that followed, people began to uncover certain truths about Theranos (the name of the company she had). The tests were not passing certain standards and were not accurate in their data. Even worse, the company was lying about the quality and accuracy of their tests. The company was also lying about how much money it was making. It was a fraudulent business.
After these revelations, holmes business, her passion, quickly began to fall apart, the billons that she had supposedly made were re-estimated to be nothing. The following days were filled with lawsuits and reclaiming of assets and money to people who were promised that it was an honest, profitable business.
The final nail in the coffin was her criminal conviction for fraud and conspiracy.
A sad extra tragedy was the death of her idea. The idea of proper blood analysis from only a few drops is a stretch. However, the idea of systemizing and making blood draws a more simplified experience is not without merit. Although laced with lies and deceit, she had actual vision, and her business could have been successful.
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I remember watching a “60 minutes” episode on this…really interesting stuff. Her story shows how powerful ideas can be and how willing people are to invest without much investigation in good ideas when they solve a big problem.