The Inventor: Out For Blood in Silicon Valley

Watched the terrific documentary on the rise and fall of Theranos and founder Elizabeth Holmes. It also highlights the thin line between the con man and the inventor.

Very well made and terrific HBO documentary from Alex Gibney.

 

Watched this. This was really good. It’s unbelievable how the early investors were describing her like she was Beethoven, like someone who only comes around once a century. Amazing how much actual footage they have of Elizabeth. I read that they were able to get the footage because her company was making their own documentary so all material was lying around.

 

Haven't seen the doc yet, but the story is fascinating. Theranos was valued at 9 B at one point, all done without really producing much of anything.
This is an interview she did with Cramer just after the WSJ story broke in 2015, she says a lot, but not much of it making sense.

 

That guy with the half-beard put it best when he was talking about the test he once did with a lie-detector, and a die!
That certainly makes the case for all 'sociopaths'.

 

Did the documentary cover Tim Draper (of Draper Fisher Jurvetson) and his strong support of her? Apparently she went to school with his son, and to this day he talks her up. One of the premier early-investor VCs in Silicon Valley.

The WSJ did such a great job of showing how the entire company was a house of cards. Really amazing investigative journalism.

 

I just watched this after recently listening to the podcast The Dropout, which covers much of the same ground and talks to a lot of the same people. She's a fascinating villain, isn't she? Certainly a zealot, as one interviewee calls her, and I would also say a narcissist, but as the doc suggests, these things aren't necessarily that unusual in a place like Silicon Valley. By the end of the podcast, whenever I heard her voice I felt revulsion, and by the last bit of footage of her at the end of this film, I wanted her very much to rot in jail along with Sunny Balwani.

 

After having read Bad Blood, the book on Holmes and Theranos written by the journalist who broke the story for the WSJ, I'd say she largely fits the description of a psychopath. Remember kids, they're mostly not creepy like Hannibal Lechter...

Anyway, will have to check this out - IIRC Gibney also directed Going Clear, which was quite good.

 

Does the book go into her background and how she became this person we see now? I don't mean Stanford, but in childhood, her family history, etc. That's the story I want, because I think that's a big part of how this happened. Another part is that her Jedi mind trick seemed to work flawlessly on powerful old white men. It's telling that the one woman in a position of power that she came into contact with saw right through her.

 

I have been following this story since it broke 3 years ago. I really hope she does time.

 

It goes into her early life a bit - but not to any great depth, not least because it seems there isn't anything particularly telling or out of the ordinary to tell, other than Holmes was focused on becoming a billionaire from early on.

I don't think there's much of a secret as to how powerful old men got taken in by an attractive young blonde who knew how to sell. You'd think Henry Kissinger would've known better, though.

 

Agreed - they nailed it and it was and is an important story. I never thought I'd be interested in silicon valley medical testing startups, but this whole thing intrigued me thanks to the WSJ's first article.

 

This was the most intriguing documentary I have ever seen.

 

I believe '60 Minutes' also did a segment (or two) previously on Holmes and Theranos.

My impression is that Holmes, beyond being ambitious for success in all of the traditional ways, believed that she could succeed, would inevitably succeed, in developing an innovate blood test if only given enough time and resources. And she could not bring herself to admitting out loud that she wasn't successful.

 

I haven't seen the documentary yet but I have read quite a bit about Holmes and Theranos. In short, I think you owe inventors an apology.

PS, anybody who modifies their regular speaking voice in order to have a voice like the one Holmes put on, is a few cards short of a full deck.

I know accountability these days is oh so passe, but I'd love to see her locked away for a few decades.

 

The book is worthwhile.