“I was trying to convince her to stay around and finish her degree,” recalls Channing Robertson, a professor and dean at StanfordUniversity’s School of Engineering. But Elizabeth Holmes, then just a 19-year-old sophomore, wasn’t listening.
So instead, he decided to switch gears. It’s rare that a dean helps a student leave school, but Ms. Holmes struck him as someone pretty special. “You start to realize you are looking in the eyes of another Bill Gates, or Steve Jobs, or Michael Dell—people who have done very special and interesting things,” Mr. Robertson continues. So he started introducing her to venture capitalists and others who might back her vision.
Ms. Holmes dropped out of Stanford that year and founded Theranos, a company aimed at delivering adverse drug-monitoring technology. She would go on to raise more than $16 million in two rounds of venture funding, and grab still more in an undisclosed third round.
Ms. Holmes knew investors like Draper Fisher Jurvetson were betting on more than her ability to deliver a spiffy technology. They were also gambling on her ability to lead a company. “I clearly haven’t been CEO of a major company before,” she says. “But the people who have invested in this company believe in me, my vision, and my ability to execute.”
Now 22, she leads more than 100 employees in a collective effort to get the Theranos System established in the market. The system includes a handheld device that monitors a patient’s blood wirelessly and works by measuring tiny amounts of blood through a biochip to determine if an adverse drug reaction is occurring. (Theranos competes with the good old-fashioned blood test at a doctor’s office.)
The device then electronically transmits the data to Theranos’ web site, where algorithms profile the information. Patients can then go to the site to check results, while physicians can check them on their PDAs. The device is now being used by pharmaceutical companies during trials to improve a drug’s risk profile. <!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]-->—Rachel Barron