Theranos documentary director calls BS on ‘myth of the genius CEO’

Image: Kimberly White / Getty Images for Fortune

The story of Elizabeth Holmes and the years-long fraud she perpetuated should be a big warning for all of Silicon Valley, according to the director of HBO’s new Theranos documentary. 

Alex Gibney, the director of The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley, says Silicon Valley’s “fetishization of the entrepreneur” is the reason why Holmes was able to get away with her lies for so long.

By now, the story is well-known. After years of lying about what her blood testing startup was capable of, Holmes, who was once routinely compared to Steve Jobs, is staring down fraud charges from the SEC.

While Gibney’s documentary explores the rise and fall of Holmes and Theranos, it’s also a searing indictment of a startup culture that was so desperate for a fresh-faced visionary that it refused to question whether or not she could deliver in her promises.

“It has to do with creating this myth of the genius CEO who could do everything and, ‘Oh my God, they’ve got to be worth so much money because they’re so smart, without them, everything would disappear.’ It’s just bullshit,” he says.

Gibney says he knows this isn’t a popular message in a culture obsessed with founders like Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, who carefully hone their image as lone, visionary founders.

In Silicon Valley, Gibney says, there’s a strong motivation to see Holmes as an “anomalous figure” who “doesn’t really have anything to do with Silicon Valley.”

“She’s just a pure fraudster. And none of the key VCs ever invested in her and so forth and so on. She’s just a freak. And that’s just not true. And, you know, ‘fake it till you make it’ is very much baked in Silicon Valley and to American capitalism.”

That idea that Holmes was operating under the idea of “fake it til you make it” is a big theme of The Inventor, even as you realize just how ridiculous it was. Some of the most incredible scenes in the film come from leaked footage taken inside Theranos meetings, giving viewers a firsthand look into how Holmes ran the company that was built on lies.

I won’t spoil any of the details, but there are some truly ridiculous scenes that will be familiar to anyone who read Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou’s Theranos book Bad Blood. 

“I think the takeaway for Silicon Valley, and the takeaway for the rest of us who may be invested in the idea of Silicon Valley … is you know, if the attitude is fake it till you make it, our attitude should be trust but verify,” Gibney says.

The Inventor premieres March 18 on HBO.