Elizabeth Anne Holmes was born in Washington, D.C., to Noel Holmes, a former Capitol Hill staffer, and Christian Holmes, a vice president at Enron before its collapse.

At the age of 19, Holmes dropped out of Stanford University to start Theranos, initially named Real-Time Cures, with the goal of revolutionizing blood testing by using only small amounts of blood. Despite skepticism from medical professors, she managed to secure backing from her advisor and dean at the School of Engineering, Channing Robertson.