The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley (2019)

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From Academy Award-winning director Alex Gibney comes a documentary about the rise and fall of Theranos, the one-time multibillion-dollar healthcare company founded by Elizabeth Holmes. Premieres March 18 on HBO.

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A hollywood version of the expose (Bad Blood) is going to be directed by Adam McKay and will star Jennifer Lawrence.  Originally Lawrence was going to star in a hagiographical film about Elizabeth Holmes as a "female Steve Jobs/Gates/Woz/etc." but things turned sour 🤣

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Blood:_Secrets_and_Lies_in_a_Silicon_Valley_Startup

 

This fiasco/massive fraud is a profoundly teachable moment and I follow it with interest.

[Michael*]

17 hours ago, Cult Icon said:

A hollywood version of the expose (Bad Blood) is going to be directed by Adam McKay and will star Jennifer Lawrence.  Originally Lawrence was going to star in a hagiographical film about Elizabeth Holmes as a "female Steve Jobs/Gates/Woz/etc." but things turned sour 🤣

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Blood:_Secrets_and_Lies_in_a_Silicon_Valley_Startup

 

This fiasco/massive fraud is a profoundly teachable moment and I follow it with interest.

 

Gibney's work is almost always a worthwhile watch, although I must confess, I don't know much about the subject matter here. Was it a big story at the time?

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On 2/27/2019 at 4:44 AM, Michael* said:

 

Gibney's work is almost always a worthwhile watch, although I must confess, I don't know much about the subject matter here. Was it a big story at the time?

 

It was a "too good to be true" biotech scam that went on for years until the company was worth billions of dollars.  It was meant to disrupt Quest Diagnostics and other companies that administered blood tests.  It was one of the companies that the Wall Street Journal and mainstream investors paid attention to.

 

The woman (19 year old college dropout with no technical skills) who pulled off the scam was incredible in her ability to manipulate investors, network with powerful industry players, and get super rich men to invest in her idea.  Essentially what happened was that a shadow company with around 100 employees was created that didn't produce a salable technology and fooled testers & on-site visitors with staged demonstrations.