A documentary about Elizabeth Holmes has become one of the highest-grossing films of all time, yet the real warning comes from Tyler Shultz, the man who exposed her company’s fake blood tests.
Shultz worked at Theranos before leaving to report that their devices produced dangerously inaccurate results for real patients in Walgreens stores. The company claimed a $10 billion valuation while its technology never worked. It only used its own machines for a fraction of tests, outsourcing the rest to third-party equipment.
Shultz told The San Francisco Standard that Holmes wanted people to talk about her only because she wanted them to talk about her. He noted that her approach to raising money should no longer be viable.
“I think the days of having a thirty-minute coffee with someone and sending them $100,000 should be over,” he said. “Elizabeth took that model and scaled it to $100 million.”
His grandfather, George Shultz, was a former U.S. Secretary of State and Secretary of the Treasury who also served as an investor and board member.
“I believe that what [Holmes] did was raise the biggest angel round of funding of all time,” Shultz added. “Even at the smaller levels, I think investors need to recognize that when they put that type of money in someone’s hands, they are giving them tremendous power.”
Theranos often received funding from individual investors like the DeVos and Walton families rather than venture firms. The company withheld scientific information and evidence that its machines worked, citing trade secrets. This warded off many top venture capitalists in Silicon Valley.
When the fraud was uncovered, it served as a wake-up call for investors to prioritise due diligence. Shultz worries that lessons may be forgotten in the current AI era.
“A huge danger with AI is that I think it is really hard to do due diligence on it,” he said. “It’s really hard to tell the difference between what is something truly unique and new versus like, a ChatGPT wrapper… If you want to deceive people, I think this is a great opportunity to go deceive people.”
The documentary, directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, refuses to characterise Holmes as a master manipulator or a victim. It highlights her knack for making people pity her even when they knew of her crimes.
Shultz did not need to see the film to understand Holmes. Her case is closed and she is in federal prison.
The film shows Holmes and her partner, hotel heir Billy Evans, working on Haemanthus. They call the diagnostics company “Theranos 2.0”. It has reportedly raised about $20 million in funding.
Shultz expressed unease about what might come next. He noted that Holmes is certainly preparing and beginning her second act.
What it means
Investors must verify claims carefully. The difficulty of checking AI technology means false promises can spread easily without immediate detection.
