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The Theranos logo; the blood-testing startup collapsed amid fraud charges in 2018.

Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain

Dead Companies

Theranos

2003 CE 2018 CE

It promised hundreds of blood tests from a single finger-prick; the machines never worked.

Born
2003 CE
Died
2018 CE
Lived
15 years
Dead for
8 yrs
At its peak
~$9 billion valuation (2014); ~800 employees
Cause of death
Overreach
Replaced by
—
The Obituary

Theranos, founded in 2003 by 19-year-old Stanford dropout Elizabeth Holmes, promised to revolutionize medicine with a device that could run hundreds of diagnostic tests from a single finger-prick of blood. At its 2014 peak the company was valued near $9 billion and stocked Walgreens stores with its “Edison” machines. The technology never worked; tests were secretly run on conventional analyzers or simply faulty. Wall Street Journal reporting in 2015 exposed the fraud. The company dissolved in 2018, and Holmes was convicted of fraud in 2022.

Worth remembering

  • At its 2014 peak it was valued at roughly $9 billion, making Elizabeth Holmes a paper billionaire.
  • Its board included Henry Kissinger, George Shultz, and James Mattis, lending it gravitas it never earned.

Sources

  1. Theranos claimed its Edison device could run many tests from a few drops of blood; the technology did not work and the company dissolved in 2018 Wikipedia
  2. Wall Street Journal reporting by John Carreyrou exposed Theranos's faulty technology starting in 2015 Wikipedia

A graveyard tradition: leave a stone to show you came, and remembered.

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