Billy Evans, the longtime partner of convicted Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, runs Haemanthus, an Austin-based startup that claims it can use lasers to detect disease in blood, saliva and urine, drawing immediate comparisons to Holmes’ own disgraced venture.
Evans has spent the past week as the breakout figure of A24’s documentary You Can See Everything, directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, which was released on October 16 and has made him one of the most talked-about people in the industry.
Despite the attention, Haemanthus’ actual progress remains thin. The company has reportedly raised as much as $20 million and holds at least one granted patent, but it has no publicly available product customers can buy and no published data demonstrating that its technology actually works.
The company has also lost its chief technology officer, a departure that raises further questions about its technical progress at a moment when scrutiny of the venture is higher than ever.
Evans, 34, is a grandson of William and Anne Evans, who founded Evans Hotels in San Diego in 1953, and graduated from MIT in 2015 with a degree in economics, giving him a notable family business background distinct from Holmes' own Stanford dropout origin story.
Reporting has indicated that Holmes has advised Evans on the company from prison, though a source familiar with the business said she does not plan to take a formal role, leaving open the question of how closely Haemanthus' trajectory will ultimately mirror the company that sent its most prominent advisor to prison.
