Theranos

Elizabeth Holmes dropped out of Stanford at 19 with a vision: a device that could run hundreds of blood tests from a single fingerprick. She called it the Edison. Investors loved it. Henry Kissinger, George Shultz, Jim Mattis, and Rupert Murdoch sat on the board. The company was valued at $9 billion. Holmes graced magazine covers and was called the next Steve Jobs.

The Edison didn't work. It never worked. Theranos ran most of its tests on conventional machines from Siemens, and the results from its own devices were dangerously unreliable. Patients received incorrect diagnoses. Some were told they had conditions they didn't have. Others were told they were fine when they weren't.

Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou blew the story open in 2015, working off a tip from a former employee. Holmes fought back viciously, using lawyers and private investigators to intimidate whistleblowers. It didn't work. Theranos dissolved in 2018. Holmes was convicted of fraud in 2022 and sentenced to 11 years in federal prison.