Hulu released a new drama in the early spring of 2022 called "Dropout Students". I don't know if the recent reality adaptation is a hot trend, before Netflix's "Tinder Fraud King" and "Create Anna", and then apple TV's "History of The Rise and Fall of WeWork", all based on the rather shocking magical reality of these years.
As a sensational entrepreneurial project in Silicon Valley, "Dropout" tells the story of Elizabeth Holmes, a 19-year-old dropout, who claimed that only a drop of blood between her fingers could detect more than 200 diseases, including cancer, and this entrepreneurial project that completely overturned the blood testing industry made her the first female entrepreneur in the United States. And who would have thought that all this would be a $9 billion scam.
Imagine a picture where she opens her lake-blue eyes and tells you in a kind but calm voice, thank you for coming to our roadshow. She's a CEO who's been on the cover of magazines like Fortune and Forbes, and she tells you: Do you want to seize an opportunity to participate in the multi-billion dollar market?
"It's your loss, and your choice."
Are you going to believe it or not?
The role of Elizabeth is played by Golden Globe-nominated big star Amanda Seyfried. Amanda was very successful in replicating several of the CEO's signature traits: a deep, unnatural voice, a long, almost neurotic non-blink, a paranoia about a particular outfit.
Theranos' investors include Oracle founder Larry Ellison and start-up investors, former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, former Secretary of State George Schultz, former Secretary of Defense Bill Perry, Murdoch, and a number of venture capitalists and institutions large and small. Many of them also serve on her board.
Rather than so many investors willing to pay for the technology, they are paying for the vision outlined by Elizabeth's blood testing company. Elizabeth's vision is wonderful in terms of medical efficiency, humanitarianism, and potential economic volume: "Whether it's cancer or diabetes, just a few drops of blood on the tip of your finger, blood testing company Theranos' blood collector and blood diagnostic testing system can produce a diagnosis within half an hour, no needles are needed, and no blood test tubes are required." That is, anyone can participate in more than 200 tests for $2.99, which is said to be equivalent to the level of a professional medical laboratory.
Investment companies usually have two approaches to investment strategy formulation: one is the track layout type, that is, investing in multiple targets in an industry, and the eggs are placed in multiple baskets; the second is to focus on projects, that is, to spend a lot of in-depth research and judgment on a single project and then it is worth increasing the weight. Blood testing itself was a new industry at that time, and as a to c track for docking individual consumers, the potential market was huge so that many investors rushed to participate in the market without conducting a complete thorough investigation, hoping to get a piece of the pie.
At a time when Elizabeth had raised almost $900 million from a vote of VCs and investors, her blood testing company was gradually revealed by all parties: not only could her blood testing instruments only detect about 15 indicators instead of more than 200, but a large number of tests on the machine were actually tested on Siemens' instruments. At the same time, due to the detection accuracy problem caused by blood dilution, many patients have been misdiagnosed.
From ancient times to the present, from the middle to the outside, the whistleblower is a very unique and important concept.
When Erica, who had just left the campus, entered the company, along with Taylor Schultz, the grandson of George Schultz, who was also a junior colleague in the laboratory but was one of the company's directors, discovered that the company's instruments were actually operating on Siemens' instruments, the two young people who had just entered the society decided to expose the problem to George Schultz, the company's director. The words of these two men did not impress George Schultz, and they both left the company.
Another was John Carrir, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal at the time, who was a good interpreter of the role of the media, the thinking that the media should have independent of capital and authority.
John Carrilu's Wall Street Journal, where he worked at the time, was acquired by media mogul Murdoch, who was also a shareholder in Elizabeth's Theraon Blood Testing Company. When Murdoch acquired the newspaper in 2007, it agreed with an independent special committee on a series of journalistic standards and codes of conduct.
Despite this, John Carrirup was somehow still under the invisible pressure of management, and the evidence found by Taylor Schultz and Erica included the headline titled "The Struggle of a Star Startup," which officially alarmed investors and public opinion.
Elizabeth's blood testing company reached the peak of a capital bubble in 2014, valuing it at $9 billion, and just two years later, in 2017, Elizabeth was tried on multiple charges, including fraud. Elizabeth's defense attorney said in her defense: "She is a dedicated businesswoman with ideals, and she has made a wave in the male-dominated technology industry". Prior to this, she herself had publicly participated in an interview when she was questioned by many parties, in which Elizabeth pushed her partner for the problem of the company's product not working, claiming that the problem was caused by the partner's failure to manage the laboratory well.
As she later defended herself in court: "There were mistakes in the operation of my company, but I never knew about it and deliberately deceived patients or investors." ”
Looking back more than a decade ago, when Elizabeth dropped out of Stanford at the age of 19 and started a business, would she also have a heart to save more lives. With this new drama that has just finished, I want to discuss not only the "fake till you make it" approach that Is sometimes criticized in Silicon Valley, but also the stereotypes that individuals can bring to a group.
At the end of the series, the producers mention that for many years after the incident, female entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley had struggled to find suitable investors, and more female entrepreneurs were told to dye their hair to reduce their similarity with Elizabeth Holmes.
In the Chinese and international investment markets, we have no shortage of outstanding female business leaders and founders, but there are still views that women are good at starting a business focused on consumer goods, and not good at hardcore medical tracks or industrial or hard technology tracks. Despite this, we still see that many female investors are sparing no effort to help reduce the impact of public opinion, believing that the voice of entrepreneurs who can make good products should be heard, valued, and invested.
Excluding gender, each of us is a different individual. Men or women are precious and encouraging, creativity is, technology is, product is, courage is. May Holmes's story be only once, and may the alarm bells ring.
Written by: Rosella Luo
Image source: Douban, video screenshot, official stills, news screenshot