Theranos: Blood, Money, and Ego – discussion and movie

From the black turtleneck and Forbes cover to a $9 billion valuation, Elizabeth Holmes was a world star. Yet red lipstick and ambassadorship under Obama led to 11 years in jail. Her fall from grace tells a cautionary tale.

When does ‘Fake it till you make it’ cross the line? Was her punishment just, or merely an example to others? Why was she singled out? Is ‘Due Diligence’ a myth, and how culpable is the media?

 We hosted a panel discussion and a screening of the documentary that tackles this century’s most compelling startup saga.

Theranos case is a complex soup.

And in this panel discussion, we did not try to find a recipe for success but to learn why so many people got food poisoning. What were the ingredients? Charisma, deep voice, fantastic pitching skills, fraud, lies, ambitions, blackmail, magazine covers, famous investors’ endorsement?

Who was supposed to check the expiry date and do the proper due diligence? We looked at Theranos soup from various viewpoints;

an investor Beata Vorosova, SeedStarter
a PR expert: Jan Hustak, Hustakomunikejsn
a MedTech founder: Petr Stepanek, Macromo
a lawyer: Ondrej Zemek, Sparing
and our panel host: Katerina Syslova

Here are as well all the photos 📸 (use them on your social media as you like).