When it comes to Silicon Valley, it is estimated that many people have always had the impression that a few people can start a company that can change the world in a garage or dormitory.
Indeed, about a century ago, this place was still an orchard, but only a few decades later, this orchard has become the kingdom of the electronic industry and computer industry in the world today.
Silicon Valley in Northern California
Dozens of world-renowned high-tech companies such as Intel, Apple, Google, Amazon, Yahoo, and Facebook were born here. Here are the traces of their struggle.
There is no doubt that Silicon Valley is the most fascinating place for many entrepreneurs and inventors. There, they can not only harvest wealth, but also become famous in the world.
Silicon Valley business leaders
However, just recently, a young entrepreneur known as the "female version of Jobs" pierced people's gorgeous imagination of Silicon Valley with a story of a drop of blood.
The girl named Elizabeth Holmes not only drew nearly ten billion dollars for a group of investors with her three-inch tongue, but also made Kissing with her superb manipulative skills. Grid, Murdoch, James Mattis and many other American political and business celebrities have been recruited.
Elizabeth Holmes
The eye-popping swindle has made her a veritable "No. 1 liar" in Silicon Valley.
Recently, HBO made the story of this great god into a documentary "Inventor: Bloodletting in Silicon Valley". In this film, Elizabeth Holmes' true face was exposed, and the so-called blood she had been claiming to the outside world was exposed. The testing technology has also proven to be an outright scam.
From "Female Jobs" to "Silicon Valley's No. 1 Liar", how did she deceive nearly 10 billion in assets after dripping blood into gold? Is this a loss of morality, or a distortion of human nature? Let's listen to what DOCO has to say for you.
A drop of blood
Before understanding Holmes' life, many people may think that the reason why such people defrauded huge sums of money to start a company must be the temptation of money.
In fact, this view is somewhat cognitive inertia.
Holmes as a child (right)
Because in fact, Holmes's family background is not bad. She was born in a prestigious political family since she was a child. Her grandparents and parents' generation can be regarded as a class of social celebrities in the United States.
Therefore, due to the influence of the family environment, Holmes has been different from other children since she was a child. She has always dreamed of changing the world by herself, and becoming a person like Jobs is also her biggest obsession.
Holmes enrolled at Stanford University in 2001, and once she entered the school, she showed an extraordinary talent for scientific research—in the lab, she was able to work with Ph.D. students and the dean of the School of Engineering, Channing Robertson.
In the summer of her freshman year, when SARS was raging, she was able to work in the laboratory of the Singapore Genome Research Center, testing SARS virus in blood samples collected by syringes.
Early Holmes in the lab
Perhaps this experience inspired Holmes to start a business, because in several speeches after her success, she mentioned that needle phobia was one of the biggest motivations for her to develop blood testing technology and start a medical company.
In fact, when Holmes first proposed to her professors at Stanford University to "collect a lot of data from a few drops of blood at the fingertips", most people thought "this is almost impossible to do, no There will be real results."
Dr. Phyllis Gardner, one of Holmes' first teachers to seek help
However, among these senior scholars, there is one person who has chosen to support Holmes from beginning to end. This person is the dean of the Stanford School of Engineering, Channing Robertson, mentioned above.
A well-respected teacher can support his students, and what he supports is just an unformed idea. One can imagine what this "encouragement" means to Holmes, who is eager to change the world.
Therefore, in 2004, Holmes resolutely chose to leave Stanford University.
Theranos, the company founded by Holmes
With the help of her family, she quickly established her own company, Theranos, whose name comes from the words therapy and diagnosis.
More importantly, Holmes' first advisor was Professor Channing Robertson, who not only helped Holmes determine the direction of research and development, but also introduced more entrepreneurial investors to Holmes.
Holmes' earliest lectures in class
But in fact, Holmes was only 19 years old at this time.
be another Steve Jobs
With the credit endorsement of well-known professors, coupled with the identity label of dropping out of a famous school at the age of 19 to start a business, and the huge dream of changing the world with a drop of blood. It is conceivable that such a maverick image will be sought after and welcomed in Silicon Valley.
After relying on these external factors to fire the first shot, Holmes began to increase his efforts to change his personal image. For her, Jobs is no longer a name that she always wears on her lips. In her heart, she has long regarded herself as another "female version of Jobs".
Holmes imitates Steve Jobs' signature move
During the entrepreneurial period, Holmes not only ate and lived in the company, but also slept only four hours a day. In the office, she had to work until midnight before leaving. In her own words, "married to the company".
Ken Oretta, reporter for The New Yorker
There was no other food in her refrigerator, just the same brand of bottled water. When it comes to dressing up, she only wears the same type of black turtleneck throughout the year.
When communicating with people, Holmes also deliberately imitated Jobs' deep baritone voice, with a calm, sophisticated and confident voice.
At the same time, she also has a firm and provocative temperament between her eyebrows and eyes, and when talking to other important people, she can keep looking at each other for a long time without blinking.
And for Jobs's step-by-step, Holmes invited Apple's veteran Errol Morris to promote the brand concept of "diagnosis and treatment". Holmes tried his best to make the outside world see "diagnosis and treatment" as the next Apple.
Errol Morris
There is no doubt that Holmes is a very manipulative man. She uses her identity, experience, age and appearance to release a unique charm to the outside world, which she then uses to attract wealthy investors.
Especially for those business leaders, the elite leaders in their minds are people like Holmes.
Tim Draper, Angel Investor
In this way, Holmes has attracted a large number of "fans" with his unique charm.
In the early days of her business, she not only invited former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, former Secretary of State and Labor Secretary George Schultz, former Secretary of Defense Bill Perry and other political celebrities as advisors to her company's board of directors.
And she also brought in Avi Tvanian, the former software director of Apple, Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle, and Don Lucas, the godfather of venture capital, to invest in her.
In the later period, more news giant Rupert Murdoch, telecom tycoon Carlos Slim, the owner of the New England Patriots and others joined. Even at several international conferences, Holmes chatted and laughed with Jack Ma and Clinton.
Just like the famous saying: standing on the wind, pigs can fly.
By 2014, Holmes had appeared on the covers of Fortune, Forbes, and Inc. magazines, and at that time, she was considered the youngest self-made female millionaire.
Later, Holmes moved her biotech company Theranos directly to the Stanford Research Campus in Silicon Valley, where she employed more than 800 people and was valued at more than $10 billion at one point.
Silicon Valley Stanford Research Area
So far, it took Holmes ten years to finally become another Steve Jobs of his dreams.
Fall from heaven to hell
However, Holmes has turned herself into a "female version of Jobs" in the eyes of the public through various means, but what is the effect of the "blood test" she has been constantly proclaiming? Could this fresh invention really be another iPhone?
In fact, the biggest difference between the "drop blood test" claimed by Holmes and the traditional blood test method is that there is no need to obtain blood samples through venipuncture. All tests only require one percent or one thousandth of the traditional requirements. blood sample.
drop blood test
In addition, Holmes has always claimed that his "diagnosis" results are also very fast, usually only a few hours. Correspondingly, the cost of this test is also much lower.
That said, Holmes promises to detect the greatest number of routine markers with very little blood, and to keep the audience spending less. It is this kind of "invention" that has brought Holmes and her "diagnosis and treatment" company so much wealth and fame.
Holmes TED Talk
But what is the truth of the matter?
Speaking of which, perhaps I have to mention the core product developed by Holmes and her "diagnosis and treatment" company - a blood tester called "Edison".
The machine on the table is the "Edison" blood tester
In the hype of Holmes and Diagnosis, the Edison was given a powerful test that would not only be portable in pharmacies around the world, but would also eliminate the need for a lab.
Crucially, it can do nearly 200 tests in minutes with just a single drop of capillary blood from a finger prick.
In 2015, however, reporters from The Wall Street Journal conducted an in-depth investigation of the tests provided by the "diagnostics" company and the "Edison" blood tester.
Under the revelations of numerous news sources, "Edison" turned out to be far less exaggerated than Holmes had advertised.
Clues Investigated by WSJ Reporters
Just as they were testing some patients in Irisana, a large number of test results were confirmed on large commercial laboratory machines purchased from other companies such as Siemens and Sorin. .
That is to say, this device not only cannot detect 200 items of data, but the accuracy of its blood test results is also very problematic.
In addition, when the "diagnosis" was exposed, Holmes and her team also "invented" a workaround, that is, in most tests, the method of decoy forces patients to still use the method of venous blood to complete the test. , but this approach has long been contrary to their original idea of creativity.
Fortunately, the US food and drug regulatory system is relatively complete.
By 2016, Holmes' "diagnosis and treatment" had been exposed to more and more negative news, and such doubts quickly attracted the attention of the US FDA and CMS, after which they respectively launched investigations on "diagnosis and treatment" and revoked them. Licensed as a "diagnostic" laboratory.
Holmes to be questioned by U.S. regulators
In this way, Holmes' true face was fully revealed, and she was also subject to criminal charges and a class action lawsuit by the FBI.
So far, the case is still pending.
When we read the story of Elizabeth Holmes' deception, we will find that, in fact, for her, if she does not do such unrealistic fantasy experiments, but just chooses to be an ordinary scientific researcher, maybe she The destiny will not be reduced to the point where it is today.
In fact, whether it is from the media reports on her or the various information she releases to the outside world, our overall impression of her is an extreme image with a strong desire and immersion in the self-world.
It seems that she created a dream for herself, but this dream is too far away, so she had to choose to deceive herself and fool the world in the process.
As the documentary says, there's a saying in Silicon Valley: "Fake it until you make it."
For a long time, this "deceive and do" method of doing things is almost an art practiced by the elites of Silicon Valley. From Edison, who invented the light bulb, to Steve Jobs, who founded Apple, they have briefly deceived investors. and consumers.
But the difference is that these people eventually succeeded, but Elizabeth Holmes failed.
Perhaps, for Holmes, her failure is not only her own, but in a sense, she is also a victim of Silicon Valley, the land of fame and fortune.
What's more terrifying is that although Holmes has been pulled from the altar, it does not mean that there will be no second person like her born in the future, because people's desire for fame and fortune will never stop.
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