5 ms·

Holmes dropped out after 3 semesters. As far as I can tell she took one intro chemical engineering class. Not what I would call experience with microfluidics.

jcranmer 8y ago
My recollection was that there was someone involved early on who had substantial experience with microfluidics, but I'm having trouble pinning down who exactly it was.
- jamestimmins 8y ago
  Potentially Ian Gibbons? He was the original Chief Scientist who died by suicide after legal issues arose within Theranos over a patent dispute. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Gibbons_(biochemist) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Gibbons_(biochemist)
  - lenocinor 8y ago
    Wow, I hadn't read his story before. I really feel for his position. What an awful way to go. :(
- learc83 8y ago
  She convinced her chemical engineering professor to be an advisor early on. But the project she sold him on was based on her idea for some kind of wearable. From reading interviews I got the idea that he was more impressed with the wireless, wearable aspect (technologies he didn't have experience with presumably).
rubicon33 8y ago
Sounds like she drank too much of the "drop out of college and disrupt the valley" kool aid.
- maxxxxx 8y ago
  She certainly is not a good person but a lot of blame should be put on the VCs and board members. They could have figured things out if they had bothered to look.
  - dralley 8y ago
    That's true, but Elizabeth owned more than 90% of the voting shares in the company. The board was basically a formality because they had no power to make decisions whatsoever.
    - gwern 8y ago
      But that's also a big part of the board's fault here! They aided and abetted that. I'm reading through _Bad Blood_ (coincidentally, before the indictment was announced), and one of Carreyou's running themes is how Holmes acquired all those shares: she wasn't the Theranos founder, she was a co-founder, in essence. The other guy (Shaunak Roy) left early on. The board approved selling his stake to her at a heavily discounted price which made one of the directors unhappy and he tried to buy a fraction as he was contractually allowed to do, so they told to resign and threatened to sue him. She also tried to get a block of stock alloted to a nonprofit foundation (controlled by her, of course). Then, as employees turned over, they would regularly seek pretext to clawback all their options or shares in any way they could, like when they fired the financial officer for getting upset about faked demos, and discovered after firing him that he happened to have browsed some porn on his work laptop, which provided the necessary excuse. At one point in March 2008, the board actually decided to fire her, but she spent two hours talking them out of it. Some point after that, they passed the even horizon... That Holmes ended up with so much voting control was no accident.
      - dreamcompiler 8y ago
        > which made one of the directors unhappy and he tried to buy a fraction as he was contractually allowed to do Point of interest: That director was Avie Tevanian, who designed Mach, NextStep, and OSX. Holmes wanted him on the board because of his connection to Jobs. He resigned from the Theranos board over this incident. (Carreyrou's book discusses this.)

jcranmer 8y ago

My recollection was that there was someone involved early on who had substantial experience with microfluidics, but I'm having trouble pinning down who exactly it was.

jamestimmins 8y ago
Potentially Ian Gibbons? He was the original Chief Scientist who died by suicide after legal issues arose within Theranos over a patent dispute. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Gibbons_(biochemist) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Gibbons_(biochemist)
- lenocinor 8y ago
  Wow, I hadn't read his story before. I really feel for his position. What an awful way to go. :(
learc83 8y ago
She convinced her chemical engineering professor to be an advisor early on. But the project she sold him on was based on her idea for some kind of wearable. From reading interviews I got the idea that he was more impressed with the wireless, wearable aspect (technologies he didn't have experience with presumably).

rubicon33 8y ago

Sounds like she drank too much of the "drop out of college and disrupt the valley" kool aid.

maxxxxx 8y ago
She certainly is not a good person but a lot of blame should be put on the VCs and board members. They could have figured things out if they had bothered to look.
- dralley 8y ago
  That's true, but Elizabeth owned more than 90% of the voting shares in the company. The board was basically a formality because they had no power to make decisions whatsoever.
  - gwern 8y ago
    But that's also a big part of the board's fault here! They aided and abetted that. I'm reading through _Bad Blood_ (coincidentally, before the indictment was announced), and one of Carreyou's running themes is how Holmes acquired all those shares: she wasn't the Theranos founder, she was a co-founder, in essence. The other guy (Shaunak Roy) left early on. The board approved selling his stake to her at a heavily discounted price which made one of the directors unhappy and he tried to buy a fraction as he was contractually allowed to do, so they told to resign and threatened to sue him. She also tried to get a block of stock alloted to a nonprofit foundation (controlled by her, of course). Then, as employees turned over, they would regularly seek pretext to clawback all their options or shares in any way they could, like when they fired the financial officer for getting upset about faked demos, and discovered after firing him that he happened to have browsed some porn on his work laptop, which provided the necessary excuse. At one point in March 2008, the board actually decided to fire her, but she spent two hours talking them out of it. Some point after that, they passed the even horizon... That Holmes ended up with so much voting control was no accident.
    - dreamcompiler 8y ago
      > which made one of the directors unhappy and he tried to buy a fraction as he was contractually allowed to do Point of interest: That director was Avie Tevanian, who designed Mach, NextStep, and OSX. Holmes wanted him on the board because of his connection to Jobs. He resigned from the Theranos board over this incident. (Carreyrou's book discusses this.)