The concept took out the fear, fuss and waiting period from preventative medicine, promising to catch diseases faster.Īs Holmes herself said, her dream was that no one would have to say goodbye too soon to people they love. You wouldn't even need to see a needle, let alone a medical professional. Instead of going to the doctors to get a test and wait days and days for the result, you could simply prick your finger and insert the blood sample into one of Theranos' genius 'Edison' boxes, which the company promised, one day, would be in "every home in America". Holmes wanted to recreate a blood laboratory in a box. The idea was - deceptively, as it turns out - simple. She was not only a rarity as a female founder in Silicon Valley, her company was - unlike the vague disclaimers of other big tech brands - actually aiming to save lives.
It was billed as "the Apple of healthcare" and Holmes, who deliberately modelled herself on Steve Jobs, was soon catapulted into instant fame. At its height, it was valued as a $9 billion company.
It became Theranos, which would turn out to be both her greatest achievement and her destruction.īy December 2004, Theranos had raised $6 million. Her plan? To start a medical company that would prevent major diseases through early detection. She registered her first patent in 2003 and left Stanford in 2004. Her father - somewhat ironically - was vice president of Enron, an American energy brand that was convicted of mass accounting fraud in 2001.Ī prodigious, bright student, she studied chemical engineering at Stanford, but dropped out, like so many successful Silicon Valley wunderkinds before her, when she hit upon an idea. Her great-grandfather had founded the vastly lucrative American brand Fleischmann's Yeast. Holmes was born in Washington DC in 1984, to a family of entrepreneurs and successful businessmen.
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