Character Analysis
(Avoiding Spoilers)
Grew up… in Washington, D.C., with her parents and brother. From a young age, Elizabeth was always itching to make something, even inventing her own model of a time machine. Elizabeth was accepted into Stanford and excelled at her academics. But she soured on the university after a terrible event happened with another student. She decided to drop out since felt ready to become an entrepreneur. She convinced her parents to invest her tuition money into her startup.
Living… in California. Elizabeth now has her own place that she shares with her romantic partner (and co-worker) Sunny Balwani. They met the summer before Elizabeth started at Stanford; they both were learning Chinese on a program in China. There is a nineteen-year age gap between them, but that has never gotten in their way.
Profession… CEO of Theranos, a company whose mission is to provide rapid and accessible blood testing with only a drop of blood.
Relationship Status… strained. Elizabeth and Sunny both work around the clock, so there isn’t much time for romance between them. Sunny cares about Elizabeth and isn’t even taking a salary in his role at Theranos. to support her He would do anything to help Elizabeth succeed with Theranos—literally anything. And not knowing engineering herself, Elizabeth is willing to receive any help he can give her.
Challenge… achieving her goals for the company, which are quite ambitious. As she says to her Board of Directors, “I'm just a girl who had a dream to change the world.” Theranos has taken hundreds of millions of capital from top venture capitalists, and Elizbeth is considered the darling of Silicon Valley. But the pressure to deliver is harder than Elizabeth ever imagined.
Personality… ambitious, stubborn, driven. Elizabeth is the poster child for “fake it until you make it.” She talks a big game, but she’s finding it hard to back up her words with follow-through. When things get tough, failure is not an option for Elizabeth. Her goal is to get FDA approval for her innovations at any cost. But if that doesn’t work, perhaps she can find a scapegoat.
