Thoughts on the Theranos witch-hunt
For the uninitiated, the media-darling Theranos and her founder Elizabeth Holmes have been under intense fire after the scathing piece by Wall Street Journal that discredits much of Theranos claims to innovation and exposes serious issues with the tests and the lack of transperancy and scientific oversight.
You can learn more about how the story unfolded here.
What I want to talk about in this post is the underlying reason for this backlash, which is Theranos and Holmes’ abuse of their new-founded fame.
Theranos & Holmes story is the stuff of dreams, a hard-working smart and driven founder who dropped out and worked quietly for 10 years on a world-changing blood-test technology and suddenly sprang into the limelight with breakthrough advancements and unicorn valuations, which made both Holmes and Theranos instant stars and role models for the media and the public.
Holmes happily rode the media wave to soaring heights, giving interviews left and right, speaking in conferences, snatching magazine covers, dispensing success advice, being hailed as the next Steve Jobs, etc. There’s nary a week without something in the media on Holmes and Theranos.
This has only served to raise the stakes for both and create more fans & believers, which worked great up till the point it all came tumbling down.
This culminated in all those fans and believers feeling betrayed, a natural consequence of high expectations suddenly degrading into ugly reality. Think Lance Armstrong.
No one is perfect and most companies and their leaders make themselves look better than they actually are, but one needs to strike a balance between the profile visibility and solidity of the work/personality. Talking big needs to be backed up by a air-tight case and rock-solid work, which apparently wasn’t really there for Theranos.
Had Holmes maintained a low profile, none of that would’ve happened and the net result of the company image in the market and value would be more positive than it is now. A lesson to learn from.
