Theranos — Silicon Valley’s Greatest Startup Disaster.

Elizabeth Holmes.Imagine building a company that could have changed the whole world but instead ending up as one of the biggest frauds in the history of silicon valley. In 2015 Theranos dominated the headlines when John Carreyrou’s shattering report first broke.Theranos Headquarters.“Theranos” was a company founded by Stanford dropout Elizabeth Holmes in 2003 using her tuition money. They received $700 million in funding in the process just by fooling everyone. What was presented out of theranos is they were supposed to revolutionize blood testing. A machine that could run hundreds of tests just from a finger prick in the comfort of your own home. While existing technology needed one vessel of blood for each diagnostic test conducted, Theranos affirmed to be able to perform hundreds of tests (seemingly over 240) ranging from cholesterol levels to complex genetic analysis, with just a single pinprick of blood. Automated, fast and inexpensive, Theranos appeared to be offering technology that could restructure medicine and save lives all over the world. Having raised over $700m in investment from the likes of Larry Ellison and Tim Draper, the company had become the rising star of Silicon Valley and was valued at over $9 billion, while Holmes, with a share of more than half that, was prefigured as the female Steve Jobs.Theranos Sample Processing Unit (mini lab)When Elizabeth was 18 she went on a Stanford run tour in China, where she met Sunny aka Ramesh Balwani. He had what Elizabeth was looking for, money, the entrepreneurship spirit and the status of an entrepreneur. Sunny immigrated from Pakistan and had some success in the dot com boom in 1999 pocketing $40m in the process. Sunny played a big role in the booming of Elizabeth’s company. She also witnessed the SARS outbreak and wanted to do something about it.…