The documentary You Can See Everything, which captures the final weeks of disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes before her incarceration, has become one of the highest-grossing documentaries of all time and is generating national buzz. The film, directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, deliberately refuses to characterize Holmes as a master manipulator or victim, instead emphasizing her strange, almost hypnotic talent for making people sympathize with her, even though they are fully aware of her crimes.
Tyler Schultz didn’t need to see “You Can See Everything” to make up his mind about Holmes. Schultz, whose first job out of college was at Theranos, was a key whistleblower who exposed the company’s dangerously inaccurate blood testing equipment, which was distributed to Walgreens stores and produced false results for actual patients. (Theranos reached a peak valuation of about $10 billion even though its technology never actually worked. The company used its own machines for only some of its tests, and instead outsourced other machines to third-party equipment.)
There’s little reason to keep talking about Holmes — her case has already been solved and she’s in federal prison — but her con artistry has captivated the media (including myself) for the past decade.
In fact, as Schultz said in an interview with the San Francisco Standard, “The only reason we’re talking about Elizabeth Holmes now is because she wants us to talk about Elizabeth Holmes now.”
But at the peak of the AI era, when companies that have never made a profit are raising capital at multitrillion-dollar valuations, Theranos’ cautionary tale has taken on new significance.
“I think the days of having coffee with someone for 30 minutes and sending them $100,000 should be over. Elizabeth took that model and scaled it to $100 million,” Schultz told SF Standard.
His grandfather, former U.S. Secretary of State and Treasury, George Shultz, was a prominent investor and himself a member of the company’s board of directors.
“I think what[Holmes]did was raise the largest angel round in history, but I think investors need to realize that when you put that kind of money in someone’s hands, no matter how small, you’re giving that person tremendous power,” he added.
Theranos’ funding often came from private investors, such as the DeVos and Walton families, rather than venture firms. Theranos did not share scientific information or evidence that its machine worked with potential investors, citing concerns about trade secrets being compromised by many of Silicon Valley’s top venture capitalists.
At the time, the Theranos fraud scandal was seen as a sharp wake-up call for investors to prioritize due diligence. But in the age of AI, Schultz worries that investors will forget these lessons.
“I think the big danger with AI is that it’s very difficult to do due diligence on it,” he said. “It’s very hard to tell the difference between something really unique and new and something like the ChatGPT wrapper. If you want to fool people, I think this is a great opportunity to fool people.”
The first question that You Can See Everything raises lies in the premise of the film itself. Why would a mother of two young children choose to invite a film crew to follow her final days with her family before serving more than 11 years in prison? The film asks a seemingly arcane question, but here it becomes much clearer. She wants people to pity her. Because this sympathy may be more helpful in her future endeavors than hatred or ridicule.
The film depicts Holmes and her partner, hotel heiress Billy Evans, working on a diagnostic company, Haemanthus, which they call “Theranos 2.0” and have reportedly raised about $20 million in funding.
“All I See” doesn’t make Holmes look good, but it also glosses over Theranos’ more heinous crimes, including giving dangerously incorrect medical information to actual patients and targeted harassment of Schultz himself, who tried to sound the alarm on his former employer. In the cultural zeitgeist, Holmes remains more of a joke than a character.
“I’m nervous about what’s going to happen next,” Schultz said. “She’s certainly gearing up and starting the second act, but we don’t know exactly where it’s going to go.”
If you buy through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This does not affect editorial independence.
