The documentary “You Can See Everything,” which chronicles the disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes’ last days before her incarceration, has ignited a nationwide discussion, achieving status as one of the top-earning documentaries ever. Directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, the movie deliberately avoids portraying Holmes as either a cunning deceiver or a casualty, instead emphasizing her remarkable, almost mesmerizing ability to evoke sympathy, even from those fully informed about her offenses.
Tyler Shultz had already formed his opinion of Holmes, rendering “You Can See Everything” unnecessary for him. Shultz, who began his career at Theranos, played a crucial role as a whistleblower, revealing the company’s perilously flawed blood testing equipment that reached Walgreens outlets and provided erroneous diagnoses to actual patients. (Theranos achieved a maximum valuation of approximately $10 billion, even though its technology was never truly functional; the company only utilized its proprietary devices for a small percentage of tests, relying on third-party machinery for the remainder.)
While there’s minimal justification to continue discussing Holmes—her legal matter is resolved, and she is incarcerated in federal prison—her deceptive prowess has captivated the media, including this author, for the past ten years.
Indeed, as Shultz articulates in an interview with The San Francisco Standard, “the sole reason Elizabeth Holmes is currently a topic of conversation is her desire for us to be discussing her at this moment.”
Nevertheless, the cautionary narrative of Theranos gains fresh importance as we approach the height of the AI age, a period where enterprises that have yet to generate profits are securing funding at valuations reaching into the trillions.
“I believe the era of securing $100,000 after a brief thirty-minute coffee meeting should cease. Elizabeth exploited this approach, escalating it to $100 million,” Shultz conveyed to SF Standard.
Notably, his grandfather, George Shultz, who served as both former U.S. Secretary of State and Secretary of the Treasury, was an influential investor and board member.
He further remarked, “I contend that what [Holmes] accomplished was the largest angel funding round ever, yet even at more modest scales, I think investors must acknowledge that entrusting such capital to individuals bestows immense power upon them.”
Funding for Theranos frequently originated from private investors, such as the DeVos and Walton families, as opposed to traditional venture capital firms. Theranos refrained from disclosing scientific data or proof of its machines’ functionality to prospective investors, claiming it was to protect trade secrets, a stance that deterred numerous leading venture capitalists in Silicon Valley.
When the Theranos fraud was exposed, it served as a stark warning to investors about the critical importance of due diligence. However, Shultz expresses concern that these vital lessons might be overlooked by investors in the current AI landscape.
“A significant risk with AI, I believe, is the inherent difficulty in performing thorough due diligence,” he stated. “Discerning between genuinely novel and unique developments versus, for example, a mere ChatGPT wrapper, is exceptionally challenging… If one intends to mislead others, I think this presents an excellent chance to do so.”
The initial question raised by “You Can See Everything” emerges from the film’s own premise. Why would a mother with two young children opt to allow a film crew to document her last moments with her family prior to beginning an 11-year-plus prison sentence? While the documentary presents several perplexing questions, this particular one appears quite straightforward. Her aim is to elicit sympathy, as such compassion could prove more advantageous for her future undertakings than resentment or ridicule.
Within the movie, Holmes and her partner, hotel magnate Billy Evans, are depicted developing Haemanthus, a diagnostics firm they’ve dubbed “Theranos 2.0,” which has reportedly secured approximately $20 million in investments.
While “You Can See Everything” does not portray Holmes favorably, it also downplays Theranos’s more egregious offenses, such as providing critically flawed medical data to actual patients, or even its deliberate harassment of Shultz when he tried to alert authorities about his previous employer. In the collective consciousness, Holmes is still largely perceived as a figure of amusement rather than an ostracized individual.
“I harbor a sense of apprehension regarding what may unfold next,” Shultz commented. “She is undoubtedly getting ready for, and commencing, her next chapter, and I am uncertain of its precise direction.”