I saw someone here lamenting the other day that they will never be "like Steve Jobs or Elizabeth Holmes". I can't believe anyone still considers her a success or worth emulating... well, I'll grant that she's an exceptional huckster.
I don't think this to be the case. Still, she certainly doesn't seem to have given up.
She may not be someone that you should emulate from an ethics perspective; but she did do a very good job amassing big names, capital, and fantastic media attention to Theranos[1]. Things that every startup needs to do well.
[1]You can attribute her ability to do all that to her family connections, but there are lots of people better connected than she is that haven't done what she has done.
Perhaps those better connected people didn't succeed because they were operating in real environments with real products, where the competition is also more real.
She did that largely because everyone wanted her a young, well educated smart white woman to succeed. Everyone wanted to be a part of an industry where she and other women like her could found billion dollar unicorns. They wanted her as a role model. They were willing to look past the signs that things weren't adding up until the very end when it all came crashing down.
So, no I don't think her story should be held up for emulation because it's unlikely to be repeated.
This industry still desperately wants a woman to make a billion dollar startup that isn't in fashion, or markets where women traditionally are greater consumers or have greater inside knowledge (fertility, ovulation, makeup, certain parts of the fitness industry, etc.)
I don't know if Elizabeth Holmes has hurt the image of women at the helm. She hasn't helped. I would like to think that I'm a part of an industry that doesn't think that every woman who wants to found a non-woman's industry startup is the next Elizabeth Holmes. I don't have data on that either way.