Elizabeth Holmes founded Theranos after she dropped out of Stanford at 19, promising a progressive innovation that could run hundreds of health tests with a drop of blood. However, the organization eventually missed the mark regarding its ambitious goal.

Holmes rose to fame with her guarantee of a revolution in medical care, in view of her claims that the smaller Theranos gadgets could perform many analytic tests quicker, more precisely and less expensive than conventional, greater machines. A major selling point was that Theranos analysers could come up with a result with just a pinprick rather than vials of drawn blood. Holmes referred to her own anxiety toward needles as motivation for the creation, part of the narrative investors and the public heard over years in her promotion of the innovation.

By 2015 Holmes was named by Forbes as the youngest female self-made billionaire and was gracing the fronts of magazines. Yet, that very year, the Wall Street Journal published stories highlighting flaws in Theranos innovation, which drove regulators the next year to reach a conclusion that the machines presented a threat to patient health.