This woman is really amazing!

[giofranchi]

http://www.inc.com/larry-kim/21-surprising-facts-about-the-world-s-youngest-female-billionaire.html

 

 

Gio

[innerscorecard]

Definitely. Perhaps this bit could be copied onto the time-saving thread?:

 

"several times a day she drinks a pulverized concoction of cucumber, parsley, kale, spinach, romaine lettuce, and celery."

[rkbabang]

"launched her company after "thinking about what is the greatest change I could make in the world.""

 

"Holmes spends every waking hour in her office and doesn't even own a TV at home."

 

"no longer devotes time to novels or friends, doesn't date, doesn't own a television, and hasn't taken a vacation in 10 years"

 

"She abstains from caffeine, limits the amount of time she sleeps, and works seven days a week"

 

 

Amazing indeed. While I am grateful that there are people like this in the world dedicating the entirety of their lives to the progress of mankind and making us all better off, I could never be that devoted to my work.  The world needs more of these types of people, they are few and far between.

 

 

[Liberty]

Impressive entrepreneur indeed. Some people are just incredibly productive.

[giofranchi]

I have changed the title of this thread… Someone has made me notice the word “girl” is not how I want to refer to a person who is 30 and a self-made billionaire…!! Of course, mine has been only a second-language mistake… And I couldn’t hold Miss Homes in higher respect than I already do! ;)

 

Cheers,

 

Gio

 

[rkbabang]

I have changed the title of this thread… Someone has made me notice the word “girl” is not how I want to refer to a person who is 30 and a self-made billionaire…!! Of course, mine has been only a second-language mistake… And I couldn’t hold Miss Homes in higher respect than I already do! ;)

 

Cheers,

 

Gio

 

 

+1  when I first clicked on it I expected it to be a story about a child or a teenager, but don't worry about it, I couldn't post in Italian.

 

[merkhet]

I wouldn't worry about it gio. I think most people will attribute it to the language thing and not any disrespect towards Ms. Holmes.

[giofranchi]

I wouldn't worry about it gio. I think most people will attribute it to the language thing and not any disrespect towards Ms. Holmes.

 

Thank you! ;)

 

Gio

[AzCactus]

Good for her.  She's changing the world for the better :)

[ScottHall]

It's amazing how little there is about her that's out there; secretive is right. She's incredibly impressive; reminds me of Elon Musk in a way, focusing on the biggest problems she thinks she can solve. Pretty cool.

[Liberty]

For those looking to find out more about Holmes, this New Yorker piece should be of interest:

 

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/12/15/blood-simpler

 

Wikipedia also has a decent overview. Starting her medical business at 19. Very impressive.

 

Holmes proposed establishing a company to Professor Robertson in the fall of 2003, while she was a 19-year old sophomore at Stanford. She used money that her parents had saved for her education, to establish Real-Time Cures in Palo Alto. Later, she changed the company's name to Theranos (an amalgam of "therapy" and "diagnosis"),[10] because she believed that many people had a cynical reaction to the word "cure".[7] Initially, she worked out of a basement of a group college house.[3] A semester later, she dropped out to pursue her business career full-time. Professor Robertson served as a director of the company.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Holmes

 

Here's a tedMED talk by her:

 

http://www.tedmed.com/talks/show?id=309114

 

http://www.inc.com/larry-kim/the-unusual-business-strategy-that-made-this-woman-a-multi-billionaire.html

 

In high school, she taught herself Mandarin and sold C compilers to Chinese universities. She went on to Stanford for chemical engineering, where she filed her first patent and traveled to Singapore to work on the SARS virus. Just ahead of her sophomore year, however, Holmes left Stanford behind and went after her dream of pioneering personalized medicine.

[ScottHall]

For those looking to find out more about Holmes, this New Yorker piece should be of interest:

 

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/12/15/blood-simpler

 

Wikipedia also has a decent overview. Starting her medical business at 19. Very impressive.

 

Holmes proposed establishing a company to Professor Robertson in the fall of 2003, while she was a 19-year old sophomore at Stanford. She used money that her parents had saved for her education, to establish Real-Time Cures in Palo Alto. Later, she changed the company's name to Theranos (an amalgam of "therapy" and "diagnosis"),[10] because she believed that many people had a cynical reaction to the word "cure".[7] Initially, she worked out of a basement of a group college house.[3] A semester later, she dropped out to pursue her business career full-time. Professor Robertson served as a director of the company.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Holmes

 

Here's a tedMED talk by her:

 

http://www.tedmed.com/talks/show?id=309114

 

Thanks. The reaction of the Quest employee was amusing, but not surprising. I suspect she'll be very successful at this, although it appears to still be in its early stages.

[netnet]

Very impressive and focused woman!!

[Travis Wiedower]

Her and Elon need to have a child.

[randomep]

 

 

I have heard about her. But what I am trying to understand is how do they get the $5B net worth valuation? Theranos from what I gather is a very secretive startup that has been around a loooong time.  So this is just a dreamy startup with sales nowhere near their valuation, correct?

 

Sorry to rain on the parade, but I first want to get the facts before passing judgement.

[cubsfan]

Theranos is valued at about $10B, and Elizabeth owns over 50%.

[randomep]

Theranos is valued at about $10B, and Elizabeth owns over 50%.

 

I know that, but isn't Theranos a private startup still? With presumably very little sales? So this is your typical private equity pie in the sky valuation?

 

again.... i am just trying to get the facts......

[cubsfan]

Yea, basically the vc's have it valued at that number with the last funding round.

 

I guess you can say it's unproven commercially, but it looks very promising in a huge costly market.

 

[ScottHall]

 

 

I have heard about her. But what I am trying to understand is how do they get the $5B net worth valuation? Theranos from what I gather is a very secretive startup that has been around a loooong time.  So this is just a dreamy startup with sales nowhere near their valuation, correct?

 

Sorry to rain on the parade, but I first want to get the facts before passing judgement.

 

I knew someone was going to bring this up.

 

A: It doesn't matter. Is it overpriced at its current valuation? Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. Assume it's worth even 1/10th as much, and she's still created wealth for herself of >$400 million. I don't see how that's not impressive in any world.

 

She is clearly very bright, and debating over what her net worth "should be" is really not the point here.

[Liberty]

Theranos is valued at about $10B, and Elizabeth owns over 50%.

 

I know that, but isn't Theranos a private startup still? With presumably very little sales? So this is your typical private equity pie in the sky valuation?

 

again.... i am just trying to get the facts......

 

The facts are that this is a private business, so there isn't a minute-by-minute quote available, but so far VCs who are putting their own money in seem to think it's pretty valuable. But most importantly, I think the technology seems very impressive, and that's what impresses me most about Holmes.

 

I also don't care how much profit SpaceX is making right now, but I care what they're doing on the tech side, and I know that if they keep being successful, they'll be very valuable.

[UNF2007]

Agree with her brilliance, however the concept behind this company deserves some scrutiny, extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof in my view. The most important is obviously if the tests they have developed match up well with current ones. Point of care testing has existed for a while in the ICU environment, with extremely small blood volumes, specifically for ABG assessment. However the problem is that it only gives a rough approximation of the true values, and is not as accurate as a regular ABG. I actually hope it works out, but the thought that she is worth 4.5 bil based on a valuation assigned by PE is funny. There was an article a while back that talked about valuations being chosen not based on value, but based on the ability to attract more investment. Here is a good article with some of the questions that have been raised about the company.

 

 

http://www.businessinsider.com/science-of-elizabeth-holmes-theranos-2015-4

[Liberty]

I think Larry Elison is probably a pretty shrewd and smart investor, and maybe the ultimate value of the company will be shown to be a little up or a little down, but I doubt money's being put in at 10bn and it's actually worth 500m or whatever. So maybe her current net worth is really 4bn instead of 5, but it cuts both ways. If the company really is as good as they say, and really is growing fast, maybe her net worth in a year or two will be much higher than the 5bn quoted now. If the economics of the business are really good, maybe an IPO would actually make valuations go up rather than down.

 

But as I said, a billion here or there isn't what really matters to me. I'm just glad to see young entrepreneurs tackling really hard problems that can make the world a better place, rather than all follow the bandwagon and do things that if they were hit by a bus, someone else would do the exact same thing 10 minutes later (one more messaging app, etc).

[rohitc99]

Agree with her brilliance, however the concept behind this company deserves some scrutiny, extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof in my view. The most important is obviously if the tests they have developed match up well with current ones. Point of care testing has existed for a while in the ICU environment, with extremely small blood volumes, specifically for ABG assessment. However the problem is that it only gives a rough approximation of the true values, and is not as accurate as a regular ABG. I actually hope it works out, but the thought that she is worth 4.5 bil based on a valuation assigned by PE is funny. There was an article a while back that talked about valuations being chosen not based on value, but based on the ability to attract more investment. Here is a good article with some of the questions that have been raised about the company.

 

 

http://www.businessinsider.com/science-of-elizabeth-holmes-theranos-2015-4

 

i think this is a good start on validity of the claims. the company got recently got some FDA approvals for their system and hiv tests

 

https://fortune.com/2015/07/02/theranos-fda-approval/

[rohitc99]

 

But as I said, a billion here or there isn't what really matters to me. I'm just glad to see young entrepreneurs tackling really hard problems that can make the world a better place, rather than all follow the bandwagon and do things that if they were hit by a bus, someone else would do the exact same thing 10 minutes later (one more messaging app, etc).

 

+ 1 ..they deserve the success and more, though the likes of holmes and musk dont seem to driven by the money. who would really work 7 days a week for 10+ years for an extra billion ?

[Liberty]

 

But as I said, a billion here or there isn't what really matters to me. I'm just glad to see young entrepreneurs tackling really hard problems that can make the world a better place, rather than all follow the bandwagon and do things that if they were hit by a bus, someone else would do the exact same thing 10 minutes later (one more messaging app, etc).

 

+ 1 ..they deserve the success and more, though the likes of holmes and musk dont seem to driven by the money. who would really work 7 days a week for 10+ years for an extra billion ?

 

Exactly. I think it's probably really rare to become a billionaire if you are driven by money, because rather quickly you have more money than you can spend and if you don't find the work itself fascinating and rewarding, and if you don't have goals on the horizon that are more motivating than "one more billion", you probably won't continue. I'm sure there are exceptions, though.