Theranos Healthcare Start-Up. A Case Study

Seminar paper from the year 2019 in the subject Business economics - Company formation, Business Plans, grade: 4.0, language: English, abstract: "What do you dream will happen by 2025?" "That fewer people will have to say goodbye too soon to people that they love."" Theranos, a healthcare start-up, that promised to revolutionize blood testing, diagnoses, and the treatment of diseases, that was founded by Elizabeth Holmes, a Stanford dropout, in 2003, when she was just 19 years old. Elizabeth Holmes was named one of the richest women and youngest self-made female billionaire in the United States by Forbes. She had a 50 % stake in Theranos, worth $4.5 billion, which was valued at $9 billion at that point. She was compared to the geniuses of Western culture like Archimedes and Beethoven. After fifteen years of operating Theranos, it turned out; "Holmes was just another start-up scammer who used blustery talk and an unclear vision of her product to sell investors on a relatively flimsy concept".