The Inventor is a cautionary tale for the way we look at so-called visionaries promising us the world, from businesspeople to politicians. "Nobody questions her motives were positive," Ariely says of Holmes, describing the Theranos situation as a "story of how people became trapped." But whatever her intentions, the effects of the fraud aren't felt just in Silicon Valley. When it comes to putting cars on public roads or telling people whether they have cancer, the oft-quoted Valley adage about moving fast and breaking things doesn't seem like such good advice. WeWork documentary: Delve into the spectacular fall of a hot startup.At trial, Elizabeth Holmes may claim Theranos partner and onetime beau abused her.Elizabeth Holmes found guilty of defrauding Theranos investors.
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He faked light bulb demonstrations for four years, pretending the technology worked long before his team of engineers worked out how to actually make it so. Edison knew how to tell a good story, casting himself as the main character, and he too promised more than he could deliver. The documentary cites Edison as the first celebrity businessman, a genius at marketing as much as at technology. Appropriately enough, the vaunted Theranos all-in-one testing device was named the Edison. The Theranos case exposes dangerous cracks in the foundation of modern business, especially the technology sector. And real people were put in danger when the company took the product to market too soon. The company's chief scientist, Ian Gibbons, took his own life as a result of the lies within Theranos. Who doesn't love seeing liars and blowhards get their comeuppance, or wealthy fools and their money publicly parted? But there's more to it than dunking on rich guys and Silicon Valley douchebags. On the one hand, the story of Theranos is a delicious yarn. This shielded Holmes and Balwani from scrutiny by press and regulators, but their luck could hold out only so long before they were exposed.įormer US President Bill Clinton was one of the many rich and powerful people who fell for Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos.
These titans of industry and government wanted to be part of the story. The backing of these powerful figures, including Betsy DeVos, legitimized Theranos. From Larry Ellison to Rupert Murdoch to Henry Kissinger to Bill Clinton, a cavalcade of rich older men fell for it. The narrative of a young woman founder determined to do good, with the technological chops to back it up, was just too perfect to resist. "Stories have emotions," explains behavioral economist Dan Ariely, "and data doesn't." The documentary highlights how their vision duped high-profile investors, journalists and cheerleaders and points out the importance of stories, even in the calculating world of business. The technology needed to catch up to the dream. Holmes and business partner Sunny Balwani continued to make grandiose claims - going so far as to fake demos for investors - while even their own staff and engineers told them their vision couldn't be realized. And she didn't let little things stop her, like the fact that it was impossible. Combining the words "therapy" and "diagnosis," she started a company with the intention of revolutionizing phlebotomy, replacing extensive and expensive blood tests with a machine that could divine diseases from a drop of blood. Holmes dropped out of Stanford to found Theranos, inspired by a desire to help people like an uncle suffering from cancer. On the face of it, the story of a callow young entrepreneur might seem like a contrast, but the documentary exposes how Theranos and Silicon Valley are built on foundations of deep-rooted power, money and privilege no matter how much they protest to the contrary.Įlizabeth Holmes in the labs of Theranos, a company she founded with a dark secret. His documentaries often deal with entrenched, intertwined influence and abuses of power fueled by vast amounts of money. The Inventor is directed by Oscar-winning documentarian Alex Gibney, who, with films like The Smartest Guys in the Room, Taxi to the Dark Side and Going Clear, previously aimed at the likes of Enron, Wikileaks and the Church of Scientology. But The Inventor explores how this specific case of Silicon Valley fraud exposes deeper problems in the way we look at the future and who builds it. On one level, it could be like the Fyre Festival documentaries that encouraged us to laugh at rich people screwing up outrageously.
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