Once valued at more than USD 10 billion, the book is finally closing on the 15 year Theranos miniaturised blood test company saga. In an e-email to its shareholders, the startup admits that it will be disolved.
The company will distribute the remaining war chest of 5 million dollars to some very disappointed creditors.
The founder and CEO of the company Elizabeth Holmes, often described as a female version of a young Steve Jobs, is still fighting criminal charges regarding fraud and conspiracy to fraud. Earlier in 2018 the company already reached a settlement with the SEC for fraud and charges of misleading investors.
Theranos was a textbook case of over promising on the merits of your widget before you are certain you can actually deliver. Less innocent was that Theranos did this while causing immediate jeopardy to patient health and safety, by delivering blood test results in which outside inspectors discovered dangerous deficiencies. Theranos was believed to have known the results of their tests to be unreliable. This anecdote led to the owners and operators of the multi million dollar company seeing their licence revoked to even operate a lab.
The imperfect nature of her products was known to Elizabeth Holmes, now 34, when the company first started. Somehow she just continued, believing the project would easily overcome every technological challenge and sinking ever deeper in a swamp of bad ethical choices.
For better or for worse, the psychology and choices of Holmes -or what we know about them through the media- have become intriguing and mandatory study material for every budding entrepreneur. It remains interesting to ask what could happen to any of us if we are somehow unequipped to deal with the sudden success and piles of money thrown at us, our own personal desire to succeed, a great burst of seemingly unstoppable momentum reinforced by cheerleading investors and ethical dilemma's that cross our way.
For some it is a slippery road that corrupts. But where lives are at stake, it seems only natural to believe that the only correct path of action would have been to reflect deeply, kill the momentum, admit failure, correct your faults, pay the damages and stop.
Now that Theranos has bled to death, and hundreds of millions of investment money have been lost, it is surprising to discover that some are still able to bleed money out of this pile of ashes, as movie director Adam McKay is preparing to turn the story into a movie starring Jennifer Lawrence as Elizabeth Holmes.
For now we have to remain impartial and withhold our final judgement with regards to Elizabeth Holmes, as it remains for the criminal courts to study all the facts and decide.