Theranos
Technology claims must be independently verified. Board composition matters—Theranos had zero biotech experts.
2003 → 2018
$700M
Healthcare/Biotech
USA
IdeaProof AI Failure Score
What Happened: The Timeline
2003
Theranos founded by Elizabeth Holmes (age 19)
2010
Raises $45M, begins Walgreens partnership talks
2014
Peak valuation $9B, Holmes on Forbes/Fortune covers
Oct 2015
WSJ exposé by John Carreyrou reveals technology doesn't work
2016
CMS bans Holmes from running a lab for 2 years
Sep 2018
Theranos officially dissolves
Root Causes
Theranos promised to revolutionize blood testing with a device that could run hundreds of tests from a single drop of blood. At its peak, the company was valued at $9 billion, making founder Elizabeth Holmes the youngest female self-made billionaire. The reality was devastating: the technology never worked as claimed. Theranos secretly used conventional machines from Siemens for most tests while presenting falsified results to investors and patients. The company's board—stacked with political figures like Henry Kissinger and George Shultz rather than scientists—failed to challenge technical claims. Holmes was convicted of fraud in 2022. The lesson is clear: extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and technical due diligence cannot be replaced by charisma.
Key Lessons Learned
1. Verify extraordinary technical claims independently
No investor or board member ever independently tested Theranos's core technology. The product was vaporware for over a decade.
2. Board composition must match the domain
Theranos's board included Henry Kissinger, George Shultz, and James Mattis — zero biotech or medical device experts.
3. Patient safety trumps disruption narratives
Theranos provided inaccurate blood test results to real patients, leading to misdiagnoses and unnecessary medical interventions.
Competitors That Won
Quest Diagnostics
$17B market cap, 45,000+ employees, gold standard in testing
Why they won: Decades of proven technology, regulatory compliance, massive lab network
Labcorp
$20B market cap, reliable diagnostic testing
Why they won: Incremental innovation within proven frameworks rather than "revolutionary" claims
Frequently Asked Questions
Sources & References
Could This Failure Have Been Prevented?
IdeaProof's AI validates market demand, competitive positioning, and business model viability in minutes — catching the exact issues that sank Theranos.