I went to see why Silicon Valley can't stop laughing at Elizabeth Holmes

Elizabeth Holmes is a dreary grade on Silicon Valley's reputation. And yet its residents are lining up for the documentary concerning her.

Tech companies throughout the US are hosting screenings of "You Can See Everything," the documentary from Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim concerning Holmes and her fiancé, Billy Evans. Venture chief finances are bringing their founders to the movie. There are Luma events upon Luma events.

The irony, of course, is that Holmes makes tech appearance bad. She sold big dreams alongside her medicinal evaluation company, Theranos, which eventually came crashing down. Holmes was convicted of defrauding investors of hundreds of millions of dollars. (She has lengthy stated that she is innocent.)

Holmes is the exemplar of Silicon Valley's hucksterism. She's who much of America points to whenever they call founders liars or scammers.

So, what's alongside all the tech love? I went to a Thursday screening of the documentary hosted by Extend, an AI records startup, to discover out.

Inside the Extend screening

A swarm of techies crowded exterior theater nine at New York's AMC Lincoln Square.

The screening was set to commencement at 7. By 6:40, a assemblage had cast to conversation shop and regard Extend's tradition stickers. Outside the theater door, I met Bo Lau, the event's coordinator who plant in developer relations for Extend.

Lau lately moved to New York and stated she didn't desire to observe the documentary alone. So, she posted concerning it on X — and it helped that she already had a following on so-called "Tech Twitter."

"I was like, 'What if I fair rotate this into a activity event so I can disbursal it?'" Lau said.

The event got 1,400 RSVPs for concerning 120 seats, she said, and she's flying to San Francisco shortly to presenter another screening. The tickets were stated out free, so Extend got no advantage another than brand awareness, she said.

Why was it so popular? Lau stated that Holmes was a origin of fascination inside Silicon Valley, and that Fielder's "awkward humor" matched the awkwardness of tech.

Filing into the theater, I heard my seatmates conversation concerning AI and which tech companies let you work from home. On a concise social media scroll before my three-hour Do Not Disturb, I spotted Lau's latest project: a simulator of Holmes' desk.

Holmes' X document responded: "Impressive project."

Laugh lines, consideration time

This was my second period observing the documentary; the archetypal was at New York Film Festival. The reactions among the techier assemblage were mostly the same. There were many of laughs, the two at Fielder's discomfort and Holmes' oddities.

The assemblage didn't react powerfully to (mild spoiler alert) the big, AI type of Holmes that her fiancé creates following she goes to jail. That struck me as curious; perchance the tech assemblage is already used to AI replicas.

There was additionally a much stronger gasp at the disclose of who's operating Holmes' X account. That wasn't shocking; the attendees established out concerning this screening through X, following all.

We walked to a local vino bar, sipping cocktails during debriefing the film. Two techies that I talked to were split. One came distant emotion bad for Holmes, afterward emotion bad that he felt bad for her. Another idea the movie certified that Holmes was a true and utter psychopath.

I asked: Why is tech so comfortable laughing at Holmes? Her arrogant visions don't audio too distinct from those of the current crop of young AI founders.

Maybe it was since the assemblage was mostly in their 20s, not yet operating in startups whenever Holmes' reckoning came.

Or Holmes has been detached from her Silicon Valley roots. The techies seemed to perspective her as additional a merchandise of the media — the books, the tabloid stories, the Hulu display — than of their own industry.

One attendee put it to me bluntly: she's turned into a meme.