Holmes had an all-star team: Larry Ellison’s mentor as Chair, Associate Dean of Stanford’s School of Engineering, 30 years IBM experience, 25 years pharma and biotech experience, Panasonic’s chip-making subsidiary head…
Big Pharma spends tens of $B on clinical trials each year. Theranos would enable them to adjust dosage and save 30%. Holmes insisted on revising financial projections upward - assuming all (15+) deals came through - to $1.5b.
Apparently, VCs know that hockey stick projections are overly optimistic. Both the startup and the VCs are in on it. But I guess that’s okay with them because there’s always a greater fool .
The onsite demo showed real blood flowing through catridges, but the result was pre-recorded because the device was flaky. In Switzerland, Holmes had a fake result beamed over when demoing to drug company execs.
Pressured about the faked demo and pharma contracts that were always under review, Holmes accused Henry of not being a team player and suggested that he leave the company.
Icy… She couldn’t stand criticism? Or maybe she thought suspense of belief served a a higher moral purpose? I mean, you could extrapolate that more efficient clinical trials leads to better drugs and then saved lives.
Fraud or not, this is a sick lineup! How could she mess this up?