In 2003, Holmes renamed the company 

“Theranos” derived from a combination of the

words "therapy" and "diagnosis" from its original name of "Real-Time Cures". Channing
Robertson, her advisor and dean at the School of Engineering, became Theranos’ first
board member and introduced Holmes to several venture capitalists.
One of Holmes’s first major hires who was introduced to her by Channing Robertson,
was Ian Gibbons. Ian Gibbons is an accomplished British scientist from Cambridge
University and had spent a total of 30 years working on diagnostic and therapeutic
products.
Gibbons was diagnosed with cancer shortly after joining Theranos, he encountered a
host of issues with the science at Theranos, and clearly the results from the tests were
off. This conclusion led Gibbons to realize that Holmes’s invention was more of an idea
than a reality. Still, bound by the scientific method, Gibbons wanted to try every possible
direction and exhaust every option.
While Gibbons became more desperate to come up with a solution to correct the
inaccuracies of the blood-testing technology, Holmes continued presenting her
company to more investors to fund her company, and even potential partners, as if that
their tests had a working, fully realized product giving accurate results. Holmes
presented her company with slogans claiming, “One tiny drop changes everything,” and
“All the same tests. One tiny sample”.
Theranos claimed to have developed devices to automate and miniaturize blood tests
using microscopic blood volumes. Theranos called its blood collection vessel the
"nanotainer" and its analysis machine the "Edison". Holmes reportedly named the
device "Edison" after inventor Thomas Edison, stating, "We tried everything else and it
failed, so let's call it the Edison." This was likely because of a well-known Edison quote:
"I've not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." In Holmes's point of view,
being prepared to face failure for a thousand times is simply what is needed to finally
get it right the 1,001st and she has no intention of letting something or someone to stop
her from doing the things that she do.
The “nanotainer” is a small device designed to draw, retain, and analyze a small
amounts of blood from a patient’s fingertip. The blood sample was to be collected via a
finger prick and then transferred to the nanotainer through Theranos' Sample Collection
Device.
The patent for the Edison described a point of care system that could communicate with
the Internet to receive instructions for which blood tests to run on the samples and then
communicate those results back through the Internet. The results would then be
compared to medical data available on the Internet and then the Edison would run
supplementary blood tests that were more targeted based on the results of the
comparison. Theranos claimed the device could run not just a single test, but a plenty of
tests on a patient’s physiology within minutes and at cost way cheaper than of the
current technology.
However, this technology has been criticized for not being peer reviewed. Peer review is
the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the
producers of the work. It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a
profession within the relevant field. Peer review methods are used to maintain quality
standards, improve performance, and provide credibility.
By 2004, Holmes had raised $6.9 million in early funding gaining a $30 million valuation.
In 2007, Theranos’ valuation hit a total of $197 million after it raised another $43.2
million after three (3) years of early-round funding.
In 2009, Holmes' then-boyfriend named Sunny Balwani, a software engineer whom
Holmes had met during her high school days, joined the company with the position of
President and Chief Operating Officer (COO).
In 2010, after further rounds of funding, Theranos was valued at $1 billion. By the end of
2010, Theranos had more than $92 million in venture capital. 
In 2011, Holmes hired her younger brother, Christian Holmes, to work at Theranos, even
though he didn’t have a medical or science background. Allegedly, Christian Holmes spent
his early days at Theranos reading about sports online and recruiting his Duke University
fraternity brothers to join the company. People referred Holmes and his crew the "Frat
Pack" and "Therabros."