The former design director and engineer designer also spoke to the bizarre culture at Theranos, with Maxwell joining Arriola's team after working with her at Apple. (Yes, another Apple recruit.) Like everyone else, they were blown away by Holmes during their first meeting with her, as Bauerly said on The Dropout, "She has a lot of conviction in her vision, you know, 'We're changing the world.'"
And like everyone else, the trio quickly caught on that things were not quite right after joining the team to help design the look of the Edison.
"Not a lot of camaraderie, a lot paranoia," is how Maxwell described the vibe in the Theranos offices, with Vollmer explaining she kept the departments separate, so on one was communicating (aka figuring out what was going on).
Bauerly now works as a designer for Google, specifically in their AI department, while Vollmer, who literally wrote, "Oh, Theranos," on his Linkedin, now works as Nike's principal system engineer, and won an Emmy for his time as a TV host on a public show.
Maxwell, who quit in epic fashion—sending Holmes two management books and a resignation letter that shockingly did not go viral, comparing her to Michael Scott from The Office in it—he is the founder and chief design officer of Smith.ai. (He also worked at Google after his time at Theranos.)
"Don't contact me about Theranos, just go read Carreyrou's book," his Linkedin reads. "First designer. Left once I figured out what was going on. Buy John Carreyrou's book, ‘Bad Blood', if you want to know more about my experience here."