Y Combinator

With Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes back in the conversation, we’re revisiting one of the most remarkable firsthand accounts of what actually happened inside the company. Tyler Shultz joined Theranos fresh out of Stanford as a true believer in its mission. His grandfather, former Secretary of State George Shultz, sat on the company’s board, and Elizabeth Holmes had become a mentor and even a presence at family gatherings. But once Tyler began working directly with Theranos’s technology, he discovered that the reality inside the lab looked very different from what the company was telling the world. On The Social Radars, Tyler sat down with Jessica Livingston and Carolynn Levy to tell the full story of how he went from employee to whistleblower: the failed blood tests and red flags he uncovered, the culture of fear that kept employees silent, his attempts to raise concerns internally and with regulators, and the extraordinary legal pressure he faced after speaking to The Wall Street Journal. This episode was originally recorded on December 4, 2024. 00:00 — Tyler Shultz’s Theranos Story 01:53 — Meeting Elizabeth Holmes 04:24 — The First Red Flags 08:03 — Theranos Launch Day 11:20 — Inside the Theranos Lab 16:33 — How Theranos Built a Culture of Fear 24:04 — What the Technology Couldn’t Do 27:43 — The Syphilis Test That Changed Everything 31:56 — Raising Concerns With Elizabeth 34:52 — Resigning From Theranos 51:53 — How Elizabeth Holmes Sold the Story 01:18:29 — Erika Cheung Speaks Up 01:21:17 — Trying to Convince George Shultz 01:36:43 — The Wall Street Journal Comes Calling 01:44:34 — Becoming a Source 01:46:41 — Theranos Goes Into Attack Mode 01:52:10 — The Ambush at His Grandfather’s House 02:16:05 — $500,000 in Legal Fees and Private Investigators 02:22:46 — Hitting the Lowest Point 02:30:41 — The Wall Street Journal Story Finally Breaks 02:37:01 — Going on the Record 02:45:20 — Life After Theranos