THERANOS: Rise and Fall of Elizabeth Holmes — Transcript

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1. 0:00from the top to the bottom elizabeth
2. 0:02holmes that's a name you may have seen
3. 0:04or heard on the news former ceo of the
4. 0:06now defunct health tech company theranos
5. 0:08she was at the top of her game less than
6. 0:10a decade ago inc business magazine
7. 0:12called her the next steve jobs and
8. 0:14forbes the world's youngest self-made
9. 0:16female billionaire at age 19 her startup
10. 0:19was a unicorn valued at an estimated 9
11. 0:22billion dollars but then it all started
12. 0:25to come down and she is now facing
13. 0:27multiple charges for fraud that could
14. 0:28lead to 20 years in federal prison
15. 0:32so what happened how could someone so
16. 0:34influential a serious prospect and such
17. 0:36a promising businesswoman end up
18. 0:38crashing to the very bottom
19. 0:40stay with us until the end to find out
20. 0:42the early years
21. 0:44let's start from the beginning shall we
22. 0:46elizabeth annie holmes was born february
23. 0:483rd of 1984 in washington dc to parents
24. 0:51noel ann a congressional committee
25. 0:53staffer and christian rasmus holmes iv
26. 0:56mr holmes was a former vp at enron you
27. 0:58know the energy company that went down
28. 1:00for accounting fraud and went bankrupt
29. 1:02in late 2001 that one it was a big thing
30. 1:05he would also work in many different
31. 1:06government agencies such as the epa and
32. 1:08usaid interesting guy to choose on their
33. 1:11part but you know
34. 1:13someone's got to do it while elizabeth
35. 1:15was coursing through her high school
36. 1:16years at houston's st john's she became
37. 1:18very interested in computer programming
38. 1:20and started her first business in which
39. 1:22she sold c plus compilers to chinese
40. 1:25universities so you can kind of see her
41. 1:27business mindset from early on in 2002
42. 1:30she studied chemical engineering at
43. 1:31stanford university also working as a
44. 1:34researcher and lab assistant in the
45. 1:35school of engineering after her first
46. 1:37year holmes worked in a laboratory at
47. 1:39the genome institute of singapore and
48. 1:41tested for sars-cov1
49. 1:44also just referred to a sars through the
50. 1:46collection of blood samples with
51. 1:47syringes
52. 1:49founding theratos
53. 1:51elizabeth holmes had a mission she
54. 1:53wanted to democratize and change the
55. 1:55health care system she was also really
56. 1:57scared of needles so that motivated her
57. 1:59to seek a method of doing blood tests by
58. 2:00only getting just a little bit from the
59. 2:02tip of a finger when she pitched the
60. 2:03idea to her medicine professor phyllis
61. 2:05gardner at stanford he said something
62. 2:07like
63. 2:08nope i think that ain't gonna work kiddo
64. 2:10he wasn't the only one actually many
65. 2:12others thought the same but this wasn't
66. 2:14enough to make elizabeth give up and she
67. 2:16managed to convince channing robertson
68. 2:18the dean of the school of engineering to
69. 2:20back up the idea so in 2003 she founded
70. 2:23theranos a portmanteau of therapy and
71. 2:26diagnosis with robertson as the first
72. 2:28board member shortly after in march 2004
73. 2:31she would drop out of stanford using the
74. 2:33tuition money as seed funding for the
75. 2:34new company pretty brave huh
76. 2:37she was sure she would succeed somehow
77. 2:40inspired by a genius
78. 2:43since her beginnings as a businesswoman
79. 2:44elizabeth holmes has shown a very
80. 2:46blatant admiration for apple founder
81. 2:48steve jobs this was so evident that most
82. 2:50times during her public appearances she
83. 2:52used to deliberately imitate not only
84. 2:54his style wearing black turtlenecks as
85. 2:56he did but also his voice and the way he
86. 2:58addressed to the public she would often
87. 3:00speak in a deeper tone than her own on
88. 3:01special occasions while maintaining her
89. 3:03regular voice when welcoming new interns
90. 3:05or talking to fellow employees meteoric
91. 3:08rise
92. 3:09holmes would be able to secure very
93. 3:11important and high-profile investors in
94. 3:13a short time like betsy devos rupert
95. 3:16murdoch and even former secretary of
96. 3:18state henry kissinger with the early
97. 3:20funding she managed to raise 6.9 million
98. 3:23dollars and the valuation of the company
99. 3:25rose to 30 million dollars after three
100. 3:28years of early round fundraising by 2007
101. 3:30the company would have a valuation of
102. 3:32nearly 200 million dollars in 2009
103. 3:35holmes then boyfriend ramesh balwani
104. 3:37joined theranos as its cheap operating
105. 3:39officer though he had advised holmes for
106. 3:41many years behind the scenes by the end
107. 3:43of 2010 theranos filed a u.s securities
108. 3:46and exchange commission form that stated
109. 3:48it had raised 45 million dollars by
110. 3:50selling equity options warrants and
111. 3:52other security rights this means that
112. 3:54the company had more than 92 million
113. 3:56dollars in venture capital and at this
114. 3:58point it was valued at the surprising
115. 4:00amount of 1 billion dollars
116. 4:03they were thriving
117. 4:06time to shine
118. 4:07the rapid growth of elizabeth holmes and
119. 4:09theranos was soon noticed by very
120. 4:11important companies and individuals and
121. 4:12they didn't want to miss the train in
122. 4:14july of 2011 elizabeth would be
123. 4:16introduced to another former secretary
124. 4:18of state george schultz and after a long
125. 4:20meeting probably with lots of expensive
126. 4:22snacks he would join the board of
127. 4:23directors my oh my theranos already had
128. 4:26probably the most illustrious board in
129. 4:28u.s corporate history including three
130. 4:30former u.s cabinet secretaries two
131. 4:32former u.s senators a retired navy
132. 4:35admiral and a retired marine corps
133. 4:37general in 2012 the company would move
134. 4:39to the former facebook headquarters in
135. 4:41palo alto california in 2013 after
136. 4:43having a stealth mode operation during
137. 4:45the first years to focus on the research
138. 4:47and the funding theranos finally said we
139. 4:50are here by unveiling their new website
140. 4:52and introducing their product to the
141. 4:53world the edison machine the next couple
142. 4:56of years would be the greatest for
143. 4:57theranos in september 2013 they
144. 5:00announced their partnership with
145. 5:01walgreens to offer in-store blood tests
146. 5:03in more than 40 locations beginning to
147. 5:05reach consumers directly the next year
148. 5:07after having raised more than 400
149. 5:09million dollars in equity sales
150. 5:10theranose was now valued at 9 billion
151. 5:12dollars and thanks to elizabeth having a
152. 5:1450 stake she was a multi-billionaire she
153. 5:18was at the top of her game appearing in
154. 5:19multiple magazines such as fortune
155. 5:21forbes the new yorker etc later in march
156. 5:242015 they partnered up with cleveland
157. 5:26clinic three months later they became
158. 5:28the lab work provider for pennsylvania
159. 5:30insurers amira health caritas and
160. 5:32capital blue cross
161. 5:34the fda even approved theranos's test
162. 5:36for detecting herpes and joe biden gave
163. 5:39her the thumbs up what could go wrong
164. 5:41right
165. 5:42well everything
166. 5:44the first critics
167. 5:46though theronos was receiving all the
168. 5:47attention and promised to become a
169. 5:49leviathan for innovation there were many
170. 5:52inconsistencies that started to gather
171. 5:54up and lead to suspicions a 2005 article
172. 5:56penned by john pierre oneidas md in the
173. 5:59journal of the american medical
174. 6:00association criticized theranos for
175. 6:03having operated in stealth mode and not
176. 6:05publishing any of its research in
177. 6:06peer-reviewed medical journals this was
178. 6:08followed shortly by professor elif
179. 6:10therios diamandis of the university of
180. 6:12toronto concluding that most of the
181. 6:14company's claims were exaggerated after
182. 6:16examining their technology however the
183. 6:19big turn for theranos would come in
184. 6:20october when the wall street journal
185. 6:22published john cario's in-depth expose
186. 6:25on the company the article reported that
187. 6:27theranos was using traditional blood
188. 6:29testing machines instead of the
189. 6:31company's edison devices
190. 6:33claimed to be inaccurate kiriru also
191. 6:35interviewed ex-employees that called out
192. 6:37the incompetence of the management as
193. 6:39well as the deception by the company
194. 6:41with their exaggerated claims ouch that
195. 6:44gotta hurt
196. 6:45not all that glitters is gold with the
197. 6:47proof that theranos was actually too
198. 6:49good to be true to say the least the
199. 6:51downfall was kind of imminent and they
200. 6:53soon started to lose all of their
201. 6:55partners and reputation in november 2015
202. 6:58just a month after the release of
203. 6:59kerryroo's article safeway which
204. 7:01invested more than 300 million dollars
205. 7:04decides to dissolve its relationship
206. 7:05with theiranos shortly after starting in
207. 7:082016 the federal regulators of the
208. 7:10centers for medicare and medicaid
209. 7:12services cms report that the company had
210. 7:15failed to comply with federal standards
211. 7:17and that one of the facilities presented
212. 7:18jeopardy to patient health and safety
213. 7:20they gave theranos only 10 days to
214. 7:22address the issue
215. 7:24this led to walgreens also pulling back
216. 7:26and suspending theranos's services for
217. 7:28good in march 2016 the cms threatened to
218. 7:31ban both holmes and belwani from doing
219. 7:33any lab business shortly after the love
220. 7:36between them would cease to exist with
221. 7:38balwani stepping down from the company
222. 7:40for good
223. 7:41the faded downfall of theranos
224. 7:45holmes and her people were somehow
225. 7:46clinging to hope trying to make things
226. 7:48work but the panorama was terrible and a
227. 7:51positive outcome was escaping like sand
228. 7:53from their hands in july 2016 holmes got
229. 7:56banned from running labs for two years
230. 7:58as the cms revokes theranos's license
231. 8:00ouch
232. 8:01from october to november they got sued
233. 8:03by investor partner fund management for
234. 8:0696.1 million dollars claiming security
235. 8:09fraud then by walgreens which sought to
236. 8:12recover the 140 million dollars it
237. 8:14poured into the company bigger ouch
238. 8:17holmes's net worth went from 4.5 billion
239. 8:20to zero
240. 8:21and the company started to downsize and
241. 8:24downsize
242. 8:25theranosis fate was settled in march
243. 8:272018 holmes was charged with massive
244. 8:30fraud by the securities and exchange
245. 8:31commission sec involving more than 700
246. 8:34million dollars from investors through
247. 8:36an elaborate years-long fraud in which
248. 8:38they exaggerated or made false
249. 8:40statements about the company's
250. 8:41technology business and financial
251. 8:43performance in june holmes and balwani
252. 8:46were indicted on criminal fraud charges
253. 8:48holmes stepped down as ceo of the
254. 8:49company
255. 8:51and on september 4th theranos said it's
256. 8:54final goodbye
257. 8:55back to the present us versus holmes at
258. 8:58all well well what an absolute disaster
259. 9:02holmes ended up getting charged with two
260. 9:03counts of conspiracy to commit wire
261. 9:05fraud nine counts of wire fraud and one
262. 9:07count for defrauding patients and
263. 9:09investors with the start of the trial
264. 9:10getting closer and closer she had to
265. 9:12come out with her defense strategy fast
266. 9:14at first it was thought that she would
267. 9:15seek for a mental disease to justify her
268. 9:17actions but some unsealed documents have
269. 9:19revealed that holmes was possibly the
270. 9:21victim of a decade-long campaign of
271. 9:23psychological abuse by belwani who
272. 9:25allegedly controlled what she ate how
273. 9:27long she slept how she dressed threw
274. 9:30sharp objects at her and monitored her
275. 9:32calls texts and emails and if that
276. 9:34wasn't enough there are reports that her
277. 9:36defense team will argue that holmes
278. 9:38didn't commit fraud and that she's just
279. 9:40a businesswoman who took part of the
280. 9:41fake it till you make it culture of
281. 9:43silicon valley which would mean that she
282. 9:45didn't deceive anyone she just failed to
283. 9:47bring technology into reality the trial
284. 9:49was initially set for july of 2020 but
285. 9:51the pandemic didn't really allow that
286. 9:53and that is not all holmes announced her
287. 9:56pregnancy in march 2021 expecting to
288. 9:58give birth in july and delaying the
289. 10:00trial even further a jury of seven men
290. 10:03five women and other five alternatives
291. 10:05were selected on september 2nd of 2021.
292. 10:08as of september 11th of 2021 reports
293. 10:10still confirm that holmes will argue
294. 10:12that she was under the abusive control
295. 10:14of balwani whose trial will start in
296. 10:162022
297. 10:17but we'll have to wait and see as holm's
298. 10:19trial is expected to last 13 weeks or
299. 10:22longer
300. 10:23the highly anticipated trial began on
301. 10:25september 8th of 2021 with opening
302. 10:26statements interested parties will be
303. 10:28watching intently to see if holmes
304. 10:30ultimately takes the stand and as things
305. 10:32are currently standing it's looking like
306. 10:34the trial will have lots and lots of
307. 10:36drama so what do you guys think do you
308. 10:38think that it was a failure by holmes or
309. 10:40that she actually committed fraud
310. 10:43is she a liar
311. 10:44has she been abused is she incompetent
312. 10:47feel free to write down what you're
313. 10:48feeling in the comments and do not
314. 10:50forget to give a like and subscribe