LSE Law School Cinema: Movie Nights – The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley

Elizabeth Holmes dropped out of Stanford University at nineteen to found Theranos, a healthcare startup company that she claimed would revolutionise the biomedical industry. The company became the darling of investors when it announced that it developed a device to automate blood tests using a quicker and cheaper process than the existing devices and with only a microscopic amount of blood taken from a finger prick. Its valuation rocketed and Elizabeth Holmes became “the youngest self-made female billionaire in the world,” according to Forbes. But investigative reporting by the Wall Street Journal and leaks from whistle-blowers revealed that the device called “The Edison” never worked consistently. The whole story was a fraud. Elizabeth Holmes turned from the “golden girl” of Silicon Valley into a fraudster.

John Carreyrou, the Wall Street Journal reporter who exposed the fraud, tells this story in his book “Bad Blood.” The book does an excellent job in showing how Elizabeth Holmes and her (business) partner Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani deceived the investors and employees of Theranos. But it says little about the character of Holmes, what was in her head, and whether she genuinely believed in the business, was a victim herself, or was the mastermind behind a calculated fraud. This is what the 2019 documentary “The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley” tries to achieve.

Please note: Places will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis.