Theranos

Theranos promised to revolutionize blood testing with a finger-prick device capable of 200+ tests on a single drop, reaching a $9 billion valuation in 2014 and making founder Elizabeth Holmes the youngest self-made female billionaire. The technology was a complete fraud—samples were secretly run on conventional machines. Holmes was convicted of criminal fraud in 2022 and sentenced to 11 years in prison. While Theranos's $9 billion valuation collapse was far smaller than WorldCom's $180 billion loss, its impact on Silicon Valley trust was profound, exposing how charisma and hype can bypass due diligence.