Hulu‘s The Dropout is morbidly fascinating, dramatizing the rise and fall of tech entrepeneur Elizabeth Holmes and her fraudulent blood-testing company Theranos. As the show picks up speed, it was only a matter of time before more people came forward with IRL stories about working with Holmes.
TikToker Leona Marlene went viral this week with a simple TikTok about watching The Dropout. She says her first job out of college was at Theranos, working for Holmes and her boyfriend/business partner Sunny Balwani.
“even though the employees weren’t allowed to talk to each other – a small group of us shared parts of our worlds, went to secret happy hours, and that’s where i met my current bff and besties,” Marlene wrote on TikTok.
Marlene is now a travel/lifestyle blogger, documenting her journey on social media. She made it clear on TikTok that Theranos was just a small part of her past, but commenters were understandably curious to hear more details about working with the notorious Elizabeth Holmes.
In a follow-up to her first viral Theranos TikTok, Marlene says, “So far, the series has been pretty factual. Except for like the cringe-dancing to Lil Wayne, I don’t know if that happened.”
“This was my first job right out of college, I supported Elizabeth and Sunny, and I have a lot of stories.”
“Anyone know if an NDA still holds up if the company no longer exists?” she questioned in the caption of the TikTok.
She adds in the video that she’ll try to answer some Theranos questions in later TikToks, but since she’s still “mildly terrified” of Holmes and Balwani, she’ll pick and choose which topics she’ll discuss publicly.
The Daily Dot has reached out to @leonamarlene via TikTok comment.
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