Former Theranos employee describes being starstruck by Elizabeth Holmes, quickly growing concerned over startup's capabilities
CNN
The criminal trial of Theranos founder and former CEO Elizabeth Holmes resumed Tuesday with the first full day of witness testimony. Two former employees, including Erika Cheung, who reported the company to regulators in 2015, took the stand.
Cheung, a lab worker, joined Theranos in 2013 out of undergrad and described being excited about working for the blood-testing startup despite it being secretive about its technology and capabilities during the interview process. She said she was "starstruck" by Holmes, who had been upheld in the media as a rare female founder of a billion-dollar startup.
But the allure of the company soon gave way to red flags about the company's testing practices. Those concerns included questions about the accuracy of some tests, such as ones performed on Cheung's blood samples that determined a Vitamin D deficiency she said she didn't have. She said the company at that time was only capable of processing a few of the tests it offered using its technology, and instead used a combination of third-party machines and contractors.