The tech seems like a Nobel cause... can it not be done? I mean we analyze blood now with equipment can't it be refined and shrunk? In not really following her whole deal, but someone should make the tech work.
Other tech that sounded impossible in use today: x rays, ultra sound, laser surgery...
TLDR: No, it couldn't be done. It was scientifically impossible.
Long Version:
Theranos didn't invent new tests; it just proposed to miniaturize existing tests.
Problem is, some blood tests require larger samples than Theranos's "nanotainers" could provide. Other blood tests use up or contaminate the sample, which very quickly exhausts the "nanotainer" supply. And some tests require heat while others require refrigeration. And so on.
In short, Theranos proposed to use samples that were too small for tests that couldn't be run in the same lab, much less the same desktop machine.
In fact, a LOT of what Theranos wanted to achieve is currently being researched and developed by other companies. But Holmes, having zero relevant expertise, wouldn't even know who to hire much less how to make it all work together.
Point being, if Holmes's ACTUAL goal had been to combine existing blood tests, she might've succeeded. She could have positioned Theranos to partner with the other research companies and have them work with her engineers to integrate each solution as it became viable.
Instead, her goal was to be a billionaire (her words not mine).
With that as her goal, she's much more liable to cut corners, commit to testing and sales before she's ready, and engage in fraud. All because she's not actually motivated to create a good product or a strong company, but just to achieve "success" by making as much money as possible as soon as possible.
She also worked too hard at copying what Jobs and Apple did. Apple is a consumer electronics company; most of its strategies can't remotely apply to a medical testing company.
Most critically, the consumer tech practice of "ship THEN test" can never work with medical tech.
And so many people get that Yoda quote wrong. He's not saying "try" and "do" are mutually exclusive. You cannot "do" without "trying to do" unless it's by accident. Yoda was saying that "I'll try" is just an excuse to fail. He was telling Luke to stop being a whiny bitch, basically.
Also, if it had been that easy to do someone would have done it long before she did. Most of these very successful startups work because there's some very bright scientist with a breakthrough technological idea. The idea here was only "let's do what's already being done only faster, cheaper, easier". Yeah, that's always everyone's goal, but it takes a scientific idea how to do it. It does't just happen by wishing it would.
shareI cam to answer but you did everything already.
Just an addendum to my screed above:
I just came across Sight Diagnostics:
https://sightdx.com/en-us
A perfect example, they're aiming at a single, critical test that can be done with very little blood. Significantly, virtually NOTHING they're doing is a "trade secret." Their methods and tech are an open box. They just have a head start with patents and infrastructure.
THAT is how Theranos COULD have succeeded. They did (supposedly) actually perfect a herpes test that their Edison could actually have run. And there are other STD tests that work with as little as a drop of blood that can even be dried up before testing.
Imagine how well Theranos might have done if they rolled out the Edison with a few operational STD tests. True, customers would be using it late at night or wearing hats and sunglasses, but they'd definitely be using the tech.
She had a cocktail napkin fantasy idea and conned a bunch of old guys into funding it. Sure it can be done, if given billions in seed funding and ten years of real research and development. It’s like the flying car, space tourism, eternal youth - all great ideas still in the making.
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