Elizabeth Holmes
In 1993, a 9-year-old American girl was asked a cheesy but philosophical question by her aunt: "What do you want to do when you grow up?" Scientist or President? ”
Unexpectedly, the little girl calmly said: "I want to be a billionaire, because if I were a billionaire, the president would marry me." ”
This little girl who has set "ambitions" since childhood is called Elizabeth Holmes. At this time, she may not have thought that her future dream has only been partially realized.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6" > "someone else's child"</h1>
Elizabeth, born in 1984, was born like a little princess. His mother worked in the U.S. Congress, and his father was a vice president at Enron Co., Ltd., the number one wholesaler of natural gas and electricity in North America, and later at the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Under the favor of her parents, Elizabeth's childhood was basically not wronged, and this also made her more and more competitive, unable to accept that she was inferior to others. Driven by this mentality, Elizabeth was "someone else's child" during her school days. Don't roll around, and you have to be the first place in every exam.
Seeing that her daughter is so good, she is naturally very proud to be a parent. Elizabeth's father, because of his work, often came to China for several years on business, and he would always take Elizabeth with him.
Elizabeth, who spent several years with her father in China, not only spoke fluent Chinese, but also sold the C++ compiler to a Chinese school and earned her first pot of gold.
The Chinese language made Elizabeth more powerful, and in high school, Elizabeth participated in the summer Chinese language program at Stanford University. Although the course was only open to college students, Elizabeth was admitted with her outstanding Chinese proficiency.
Stanford University
Elizabeth's fate with Stanford University obviously did not end abruptly. In 2002, Elizabeth, a high school graduate, was admitted to Stanford University, became a chemical engineering student, and received a "presidential scholarship" of $3,000 a year.
Elizabeth also spent her free time in the lab after entering school. In 2003, she filed her first patent: wearable patches for drug delivery.
It was also in this year that Elizabeth, who had been enrolled for less than a year, was appreciated by Channing Robertson, the dean of the School of Engineering, and made an exception for her to go to her lab to help the Doctoral students. Subsequently, In her freshman year, Elizabeth also received an internship at the Singapore Genome Research Centre.
Just when parents and school seem to see a rising "superstar", they find that this "superstar" has drifted: Elizabeth, who has only been in college for a year, suddenly proposes to drop out of school to start a business. Because she thinks that studying is too boring, or making money is more important.
In general, parents hear children admitted to prestigious universities say such things, and most of them will feel that their children are too stressed and let their children consider it again.
But Elizabeth's parents are not short of money, not only immediately promised to let Elizabeth drop out of school, but also turned the "education fund" left for her to go to school into "entrepreneurial funds" to support her daughter's "entrepreneurial plan".
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="105" > it is not easy to start a business</h1>
In March 2004, Elizabeth took money from her parents to start a company called Theranos, ready to enter the lucrative blood testing industry. The money and the company are there, and then professionals are needed to "town the field".
Elizabeth approached her mentor, Professor Robertson, and asked her to be her first board member and serve as a technical advisor. Robertson just goes to the company once a week before the school's emeritus. What impressed Robertson was not only the generous treatment given by Elizabeth, but also the earth-shattering project she was going to do next
Elizabeth, out of her fear of needles, is ready to develop a new blood testing technology, which can be tested in large quantities with a light prick from her finger and a very small amount of blood.
This thing, even if it is not professional people, will feel unreliable. After all, blood testing is a very sophisticated technology, requiring enough valid samples, through a series of complex test calculations, to finally get the results, and the results must be nearly error-free.
However, Elizabeth and Robertson persuaded themselves first, believing that this technology was achievable at this stage.
Elizabeth then printed a 26-page business plan, "brainwashing" investors who knew nothing about medicine.
In the end, the investors were successfully lame by her, adding up to $6 million in Elizabeth. These people who painted the cake eventually ate the cake drawn by others.
In this way, Elizabeth, who raised funds, returned to the company and began to arrange design and development. At first, she led the team to try to use a patch with a small needle attached to the arm to take blood for testing, but ultimately failed.
Elizabeth, who found herself unable to make "gadgets", made a "big guy" with the team: "Theranos 1.0". This is a large machine that can only be placed in the laboratory, and when it is used, the collected samples are put into a special box and then stuffed into the machine.
However, this dedicated box is disposable. And the cost is still very high, one will cost 200 US dollars, a week high and low to use hundreds, it can be said that it is very expensive.
Although the cost is high, after long-term experiments, the machine can go through the inspection process normally. Unfortunately, there are also two fatal problems:
First, Elizabeth was still obsessed with using tiny amounts of blood, making it almost undetectable by machines. In order to produce results, they had to mix a certain proportion of normal saline.
However, this technology needs to be extremely precise and rigorous, and after the blood is diluted, the result will naturally become inaccurate.
Secondly, the precision of the machine did not meet expectations, resulting in blood and reagents "visiting each other", and the entire detection process became a pot of porridge and became more inaccurate.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="111" > the first step to fooling others is to fool yourself first</h1>
The main reason why they were so "confused" was because by the end of 2005, the previous $6 million first round of financing had only taken 18 months to smash.
Although Elizabeth may not be very good at starting a business, I have to say that she is indeed a good hand at fooling. Although her inspection machine was almost scrap iron, she quickly raised $9 million in financing.
Before the $9 million had warmed up, Elizabeth turned around and spent $3,000 on a robotic arm for dispensing. In this way, the big problem of blood "door-to-door" is solved, and the detection process can be completed without contamination.
Then she "upgraded" the shell and made an upgraded version of the inspection machine, which she named "Edison". The new machine was about the size of the printer, and it looked like that, but there were also serious problems. Test tubes often rupture during testing. Therefore, this machine, in fact, still can not be tested normally.
The roof leaked during the overnight rain, and just when Elizabeth's side was in a mess, suddenly a "roadblock" was killed. One company launched a competitor to "Alison," and their machine could complete 31 tests in 12 minutes.
When Elizabeth saw that everyone's cakes were out of the pan, she was still in the "water and noodles" link, and immediately panicked. She directly and publicly claimed that her "Edison" is more powerful, only need a drop of blood, you can carry out nearly 300 tests, in addition to routine tests such as blood sugar, even cancer and other difficult diseases can be detected.
Under Elizabeth's blows, a machine that could not perform normal testing at all was transformed into a new invention that changed the world.
In addition to the packaging machine, Elizabeth continues to package herself. She often claims to be Jobs's "fan sister", imitating Jobs everywhere in terms of speech and dressing style.
At the same time, she has also recruited many Apple employees one after another, as if it were a branch of Apple. She set up this "female version of Jobs" for herself, and also gave her flickering skills "icing on the cake".
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="114" > are racing against the crooked road</h1>
Under Elizabeth's "unremitting efforts", the company not only temporarily solved the threat posed by competitors, but also successfully caught many "big fish".
By the end of 2010, the company had received nearly $92 million in investment. And Elizabeth, in addition to attracting the attention of investors, also received the endorsement of some officials.
In July 2011, Elizabeth was introduced to former U.S. Secretary of State George Schultz, who was 91 years old at the time. After interviewing Elizabeth for about two hours, Schultz not only agreed to join Elizabeth's board of directors, but also brought in the "Five Tiger Generals" to the company's board of directors:
Former Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sam Nunn, former Navy Chief of Operations Gehry Roheid, former Secretary of Defense William Perry, former Marine Corps four-star Gen. James Mattis, and even former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
George Schultz
Although the company's lineup is very "luxurious", its style is also extremely low-key. They don't have an official website, they haven't published books or magazines, and the owner, Elizabeth, is the only "microphone" in the company.
As a result, Elizabeth is a frequent attendee and guest on many radio and television stations, such as CNN, Fox Business Channel, and National Public Radio, and she has even been interviewed by the Washington Daily.
After the interview, the Washington Daily did not hesitate to praise her, calling her "the next Jobs!" Next Bill Gates! ”
Then, public opinion rose further, and she not only talked about cooperation with the US military, but also became the United Nations ambassador; not only received $125 million in investment from the world newspaper tycoon Murdoch, but also talked and laughed with former President Clinton.
In this way, Elizabeth, although she did not do anything serious, she succeeded in lame most of the United States. Later, by 2014, Elizabeth's market value had reached $9 billion, so Elizabeth, who held more than half of the shares, was worth more than $4.5 billion.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="116" > are all bubbles</h1>
At the same time as Elizabeth's frenzied campaign, in July 2013, Walgreens, the largest chain pharmacy in the United States, could not sit still, did not even investigate, and directly signed a purchase order worth $50 million with Elizabeth, and even helped her with a loan of 25 million.
The main reason why Walgreens is so generous is to try to get ahead of other competitors. After all, at that time, the traditional blood test in the United States cost more than $75 billion a year. In this way, Elizabeth's "Edison" will definitely make a lot of money in the future.
Driven by interests, they even renovated their own storefront to make room for Elizabeth's testing center.
Walgreens
Walgreens's actions seem to have brought great help to Elizabeth's company, but in Elizabeth's view, this is undoubtedly pushing her into the fire pit. After all, to engage in testing centers, it is bound to accept the test of the market and consumers.
Elizabeth, who was struggling to ride a tiger, thought of a "genius-like" brilliant plan. Although "Edison" can not be accurately detected, but there are other families on the market that can be used. So she spent $100,000 and bought 6 Siemens analyzers.
However, this one weighs about 600 kilograms, which is almost equivalent to the weight of 8 adult men. And the volume is also relatively large, there is no way to hide in the testing center. Therefore, these 6 Siemens analyzers were placed by Elizabeth in the company.
Because of this, their testing is not done immediately, but needs to wait for employees to send blood to the company before starting testing. Due to the lack of effective preservation, a large amount of blood has deteriorated before it can be sent to the company.
In order to make users feel "accurate", the "smart" Elizabeth has an idea. She specifically asked someone to do a whole set of videos to make the test process and test results all "visualized". She proved with her actions that seeing is not necessarily believing.
This is not the end of the matter, Elizabeth also privately signed a confidentiality agreement with the company's employees, and assigned the employees to a team, ordering the employees not to inquire about the company's affairs that are not their own work.
After sealing the employee's mouth as much as possible, the almost crazy Elizabeth secretly arranged for the employee to directly delete or falsify the abnormal data to further ensure that her lies would not be exposed.
But she never imagined that she, backed by government officials, would end up with a Wall Street Journal reporter named John Carreru.
John Carreru
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="120" > the end of a big lie</h1>
John Carreru is an ace reporter for the Wall Street Journal, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, and a good journalist with professional ethics.
The reason why John will target Elizabeth is mainly because of the company that "can detect 31 items in 12 minutes". The company was set off in a bleak light after Elizabeth 's shine'. Although the owner of the company thinks that Elizabeth is lying, under Elizabeth's strong public relations ability, he has not been able to find a suspicious place.
During a small talk with Siemens sales, I learned that the other party often had to go to Elizabeth's company. He immediately sensed that something was wrong, since Elizabeth's "Edison" detection technology was so strong, why did he frequently look for Siemens? The answer is obvious, their technical ability is not as high as it is, perhaps not as good as their own company.
After finding the suspicious point, the boss privately found John Carellus, because he had seen many reports of John before, and he believed that John would be able to peel back the cocoon, investigate Elizabeth's lies, and expose them to the world. As it turned out, he made the right choice.
Based on this clue, John secretly interviewed Siemens employees, tested users, and even Elizabeth's own employees. After months of detailed investigation, John collated a large body of ironclad evidence of Elizabeth's forgery, holding a "bomb" in his hand.
On October 15, 2015, the Wall Street Journal published a lengthy article titled "The Struggles of a Star Startup."
This article not only has authoritative analysis, but also the testimony provided by employees and users, which exposes Elizabeth's lies in an all-round way and instantly attracts widespread attention from all walks of life.
Elizabeth, who saw the report, soon learned that the article was written by John, and began to pressure John from all angles, forcing him to abandon the investigation and report.
But the more she did this, the more weakly she seemed to John. John was not afraid of Elizabeth's threat, but instead more actively launched a public opinion offensive against Elizabeth.
Over the next three weeks, the Wall Street Journal published four more stories about Elizabeth and her company. Each report is like a mirror that makes Elizabeth's lies appear again and again.
For a time, Elizabeth, who was in the limelight, was repulsed by public opinion in the blink of an eye, and was on the cusp of the storm.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="122" > watched her collapse</h1>
The trees fell and scattered, and the walls fell and the people pushed them. Many people on the board of directors saw that the situation was not right and immediately left their posts and ran away. Walgreens also publicly stated that it would close all the "testing centers".
At the same time, for various reasons, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which has been "invisible", has also begun to investigate Elizabeth's company. The results found that the "Edison", who claimed to be able to perform nearly 300 tests, actually had only 12, and the measurements were not very accurate.
At this point, everyone finally believed that Elizabeth was a complete liar, and then the valuation of her and the company fell off a cliff.
On June 2, 2016, Forbes magazine believed that Elizabeth's previous worth of 4.5 billion yuan had evaporated by this time, leaving only $0.
Immediately afterwards, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission joined the verbal crackdown. After an investigation, they believed that Elizabeth's company had committed fraud.
In september 2018, Elizabeth's "Theranos" company officially announced its dissolution, and the only remaining value of the "Silicon Valley Star Company", which once had a market value of more than 9 billion, was mortgaged to creditors.
This year, Elizabeth is going to court and, with 12 charges, faces up to 20 years in prison if she loses.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="125" > conclusion</h1>
A lie requires countless lies to round. If Elizabeth had done her research steadily, although she might not have started so quickly, she would not have stepped into the prison door with one foot.
Integrity is far more precious and reliable than ingenuity.