At its height, Theranos was the darling of Silicon
Valley with a valuation of $9 billion, but it is now facing fraud
charges and a loss of hundreds of millions. So what went
wrong?
The Theranos story started in 2003 when Elizabeth Holmes dropped
out of Stanford University to set up a promising health technology
business that claimed to be able to accurately diagnose health
conditions from a single drop of blood. It is ending with investors
losing hundreds of millions, employees out of work and out of
pocket, while its founder and COO are facing multiple fraud
charges.
In my opinion, put simply, Theranos experienced ongoing
governance failures on an epic scale. The science at the heart of
the company was allegedly deeply flawed but this crucial fact was
allowed to remain hidden by a corporate culture of secrecy and a
startling lack of checks and balances.
