Elizabeth Holmes: The Inventor out for blood in Silicon Valley

This was such an interesting documentary to me as I was vaguely familiar with Elizabeth Holmes prior to the video but mainly knew her from the infamous "Steve Jobs" photo. Before the documentary had even mentioned Steve Jobs, I had an idea that Holmes would be compared to him due to the popular image that Holmes took. 

 



I thought this was a rather intriguing story as it outlines Holmes' invention and the rise and quick downfall that came with it. Holmes invented Theranos and an alternative that allowed for individuals to stop having to get blood drawn in the traditional sense (phlebotomy) and erase this discomfort from the lives of everyone. Her reason behind the invention was due to her uncle getting sick and shortly passing after the diagnosis, which led her to want to create something that could relieve the pain these individuals had to face every time they gave blood. This story struck a chord in me as I have a chronic illness that forces me to get bloodwork done twice a year, so hearing this was fascinating but it also seemed far too good to be true. I was unfamiliar with Holmes and her invention but as I watched the video I got the impression that she was way in over her head and promised far too many things to far too many people and in the end, it resulted in her invention having no use to anyone at all-as the main thing with the invention was that it would only allow for a finger poke. Holmes was unable to deliver on her promise because once her invention made its way into local Walgreens and pharmacies, it quickly turned bad because traditional needles and phlebotomy had to be used because numerous tests could not be run through a finger poke. What surprised me the most about this was how little Holmes began to care at the end, since she asked employees and scientists to rig results in order to get the results that Elizabeth wanted. Interesting because the reason that Holmes created her invention was to help others avoid the discomfort of bloodwork and blood taking but ended with her not caring at all what happened to these customers. 


Comments

  1. Claire DavidsonJanuary 23, 2022 at 4:36 PM

    Discussion Questions:

    Q1: At the beginning of the documentary and first hearing about her invention, did you believe that the invention would ultimately work or did you think it was too good to be true? Why or why not?

    Q2: After hearing about Holmes and Liu's perspectives and opinions in regard to the tech sector and Silicon Valley, did your thoughts on Silicon Valley change or remain the same?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Spencer TJanuary 30, 2022 at 9:45 PM

    Hey there Claire,

    Excellent post and interesting thoughts you put towards Elizabeth Holmes and her company Theranos. I think that Elizabeth at first really wanted to make something that could really change the future of healthcare with a machine like the Edison but ultimately lost her way through it all, with the fame and money that was rolling in. The invention could had been able to work in a way but definitely needed to be thoroughly tested and peer reviewed because of the nature of the product but overall yes I think that the product could have worked in some capacity. The technology and area Theranos was exploring was not new in anyway and many different people believe that there does need to be a way to easily blood test many different things on a small scale.

    I would say that after all of this my perspective on silicon valley hasn't really changed because this fake it till you make it mentality has been used in many different successful companies, but the creators of said companies knew how to properly fake it. The tech sector will always be filled with people with a vision to better an area of the human race in some capacity because not only will it get them recognition but make them extremely rich, the whole reason people enjoy believing in these start ups. We wouldn't have many of the technological feats we have now without this mentality but it all depends on how a CEO of a company interprets the meaning of the saying unlike how Elizabeth Holmes did with the Edison.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Claire DavidsonJanuary 31, 2022 at 6:24 PM

      Hi Spencer!

      Thank you for the response! I completely agree with what you said and my perspective on Silicon Valley has also remained the same and agree that the fake it till you make it mentality is something that surrounds Silicon Valley and I think will forever. The tech sector is such a massive environment and atmosphere filled with individuals with similar mentalities as Elizabeth Holmes, as everyone wants to create an invention that will change the world.

      Is there another tech starter or tech genius who had a similar mentality to Elizabeth Holmes but ended up successful?

      Delete
  3. Tony FengFebruary 7, 2022 at 4:09 PM

    Hello Claire, I thought it’s really interesting how you pointed to Elizabeth Holmes’ attitude towards the end and how it was completely against her mission statement at the beginning. Makes me think that it was never about her dead uncle, and that she simply used his story as an emotional appeal for her brand.
    For your first question, when I started watching the documentary, I honestly thought it would work. I would like to believe that anything is possible and if there’s such a large investment into a product, as well as hype, I would hope that it would work.
    For your second question I think that I’m starting to be more pessimistic about the greatness of Silicon Valley. It seems to keep trying to innovate and create new things that will revolutionize the world, but it kind of feels like a hype machine. It doesn’t really try to change the world in any way that’s meaningful, like ending world hunger, instead it just tries to do what it thinks people want and make the product seem like it’s revolutionary.

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  4. Tyler McRaeFebruary 12, 2022 at 11:28 PM

    Hi Claire,

    To address your first question, it was difficult to judge initially if Holmes invention would be a catalyst in the health industry. Like all new inventions, you want disruption and the hope of creating someting that forces markets and business operations to abide by the idea. When you emulate Steve Jobs, I thought there would be a high chance that the company would suceed as everything about jobs is a disruptor in the tech industry. However, further in you could tell that by the way she handled questions that it was "too good to be true." Immeditaley when she was convited of wire fraud, it reminded me of Berni Madoff and his ponzi scheme and how both Holmes and Madoff were "faking it till they made it" for the purpose of building a reputation rather than being an innovator in their respective industries.

    To address question two, my thoughts towards Silicon Valley have not changed. I feel if anything that Silicon Valley has disrupted modern technology and thats a positive thing. While there are always concerns about privacy and data, we are often hypocritical as we want our own custom settings towards any type of technology and the average person is not highly skilled in programming and coding in order to understand the work put behind changing personal reccomendations towards a website, show, music, etc. However, I do think there is a desperate need for a cultural change for Silicon Valley as its original concept was to liberate people online, free of political boundaires. Yet, we find as years go on, more people anywehere are being censored due to new policies and reforms being made on huge platforms like Youtube, Instagram where they try to install a specific way of behaving.

    Heres an artical I found that helped me formed my idea concering my answer to question two.
    https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-silicon-valley-so-important-does-continue-prosper-john-mathon

    Do you think Silicon Valley needs a change culturally? Do you see a difference from what Silicon Valley was in the past decade to now?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Jordan Glyn-WilliamsApril 18, 2022 at 2:43 PM

    I initially believed that her product would work based on the conviction of which she portrayed. In retrospect it would be easy to say that I didn't think the product would work after watching the documentary. It seemed as if the tech was too good to be true but it also allowed the audience and investors to dream of a better more efficient world and for that we wanted her to succeed. Great Post!

    ReplyDelete

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