Theranos

The showrunner behind Hulu's new miniseries on Elizabeth Holmes is hoping you'll see a new side to the disgraced Silicon Valley wunderkind's story. Liz Meriwether is the showrunner for The Dropout , which airs its final episode on Hulu on April 7. The series chronicles the meteoric rise and fall of Theranos , the blood testing startup that Holmes falsely claimed could complete an extensive range of tests with diminutive quantities of blood. Amanda Seyfried plays the Theranos CEO and Naveen Andrews plays Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani, Holmes's boyfriend who also served as both chief operating officer and president at the now-defunct company. Meriwether's interest in Holmes stems from a Vanity Fair article published in 2016 which focused on the crumbling empire of the Theranos CEO. Though Holmes fascinated Meriwether, she wouldn't revisit the founder's story until 2018, when Searchlight Pictures optioned a podcast called The Dropout . Meriwether says that she felt … [Read more...] about ‘The Dropout’ Showrunner Liz Meriwether on the Complex Emotions Behind the Theranos Saga

This story first appeared on The Fiscal Times . Uber just lapped Facebook. After a new round of investor funding, Uber Technologies Inc. is now valued at close to $51 billion, the highest valuation ever for a venture-backed firm -- a title once held by Facebook. Uber isn’t the only tech startup getting sky-high valuations lately. Lodging rental site Airbnb is worth more than $25 billion and Elon Musk’s SpaceX is worth $12 billion and climbing. What’s behind these staggering startup valuations? Related: Man and Uber Man: Do Startup CEOs Have to Be Jerks? In large part, investors are driving the valuation game. More and more investors are trading higher valuations for protections against losses and other advantages. Higher valuations, which help nascent companies build credibility and recruit talent, are typically part of package deals in which the investors receive preferential treatment in the event of IPOs, sales or financial setbacks. The more … [Read more...] about The 15 Most Valuable Startups in the U.S.

You don't need to go to Park City, Utah to see the films at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival . For the second consecutive year, the Sundance films will be made available to watch online, between January 20 and January 30. This year's lineup has several films about business and business owners, both in the documentary and narrative sections. Anyone hoping to see Jennifer Lawrence portray Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes in 2022 will likely have to wait at least another year, however, as the long-gestating project from Apple Studios is still being written. In the meantime, here are five movies for founders at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival: 1. TikTok, Boom A documentary about the world's most downloaded app, TikTok, Boom aims to answer the question: "Why is an app, best known for people dancing, the target of so much controversy?" The story is told by a group of Gen-Z natives, journalists and social media experts. Director Shalini Kantayya's previous documentary … [Read more...] about 5 Can’t Miss Movies About Business and Tech at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival