Billy Evans (businessman)
American entrepreneur
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
William Evans (born January 11, 1992) is an American businessman who founded and runs Haemanthus, a diagnostics start-up based in Austin, Texas. He became the partner of Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of Theranos, in 2017. Evans is featured in the book Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup, the podcast The Dropout, the television miniseries The Dropout, and is a central figure in the 2026 documentary You Can See Everything, directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim.
Billy Evans | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 11, 1992[1] |
| Education | Massachusetts Institute of Technology (BS) |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Title | Chief executive officer of Haemanthus |
| Partner | Elizabeth Holmes |
| Children | 2 |
Early life and education
Evans, who grew up in San Diego, is the eldest of three children born to Susan and William L. Evans.[2][3][4] His grandparents, Anne and William D. Evans, opened a hotel on Mission Bay in 1953, which later became Evans Hotels, a family-owned company that operates three properties in Southern California.[5][2][6] One of the hotels is in La Jolla, and two are located in Mission Bay.[7] In an October 2026 statement, the company said that Evans was neither an employee nor a shareholder.[5] Several members of Evans's family, including his mother, uncle, and maternal grandmother, are devout members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.[3]
Evans attended the Francis Parker School in San Diego.[2] He then attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 2010 to 2015.[7] Evans played on the men's volleyball team, the MIT Engineers, and graduated in 2015 with a bachelor's degree in economics.[7][5][8] Evans studied abroad at Fudan University in Shanghai in 2013 and 2014.[3][7]
Career
Medical startup and Luminar Technologies
After college, Evans reportedly tried to launch a medical concierge start-up, which did not succeed.[2] Forbes reported that earlier versions of Evans's LinkedIn profile listed him as a strategy and leadership program analyst at LinkedIn until February 2017.[8] He then worked as a special projects manager at the lidar company Luminar Technologies from 2017 to January 2019.[8][6] His LinkedIn profile was later edited to remove every position except Haemanthus.[8]
Haemanthus
Evans has listed himself as the chief executive of Haemanthus since 2022.[5] The company was incorporated in Delaware by late 2023 and is based in Austin.[9] The company shares its name with the flower haemanthus, which is Greek for "blood flower".[7][9][10] The company has not released products.[9][2][8]
Haemanthus is developing a countertop device that uses lasers to analyze blood, urine, and saliva at the molecular level.[7] Rather than shrinking conventional laboratory methods as Theranos attempted, the device is based on Raman spectroscopy.[2][8][9] According to company materials, it would identify biomarkers such as glucose and hormones within seconds and use deep learning models to detect cancer and infections.[9] A patent for the company's Raman spectroscopy system was granted on January 21, 2025.[2][10] The company plans to begin by testing pets before moving to humans. Its long-term goal is a stamp-sized wearable device, which it told investors would take three years and $70 million to develop.[9] The New York Times noted that a photo of the prototype shown to investors resembled the Theranos testing machine.[9]
The company's investor materials stated that its product faced no regulatory oversight and that the United States Department of Agriculture had confirmed this in writing. A USDA spokesperson told the Times that the agency does regulate veterinary diagnostics. Evans provided a partially redacted USDA document stating that the product did not appear to fall within the jurisdiction of the agency's Center for Veterinary Biologics.[9]
Haemanthus first sought $3.5 million from friends and family. In the spring of 2025, it began seeking an additional $15 million from investors in Austin and the San Francisco Bay Area, and its materials described a goal of eventually raising more than $50 million.[9] The venture capitalist Jim Breyer said that his firm declined to invest for many of the same reasons it had passed on Theranos.[9] As of 2025, about a dozen people worked for the company, and much of its leadership had previously worked with Evans at Luminar.[10][9] By 2026, the company reported funding of up to $20 million.[2]
Elizabeth Holmes is not named in the Haemanthus incorporation documents, and the company's investor presentation did not mention Evans's relationship with her.[2][9] In 2025, NPR reported that Holmes had been advising Evans on the company from prison, though a source familiar with the company said that she did not plan to take a formal role.[10][11] A person familiar with the business told The Wall Street Journal that she is not involved.[2] In a 2025 thread on X, the company acknowledged Evans's relationship with Holmes and said that it was "not Theranos 2.0".[10][2] In You Can See Everything, however, Evans accepts that description, and he and Holmes are shown on fundraising calls and discussing product development.[2] A chemistry professor at the University of California, Irvine who consults for the company told Wired that its engineering ideas were credible and that it was not a repeat of Theranos.[2]
Personal life
Evans met Holmes in 2017 at a Fleet Week event in San Francisco, while she was under federal investigation.[5][6][12] The couple became engaged in August 2018, at a Taylor Swift concert during the singer's Reputation Stadium Tour.[7][5][13] In 2019, they spent six months traveling the United States in an RV.[5] The same year, Business Insider reported they had a private wedding ceremony.[14] People reported they were married as of 2022.[15] During Holmes' federal trial, United States v. Elizabeth A. Holmes, et al., Evans' father Bill attended the court proceedings in a disguise and informed people his name was "Hanson" and that he was a car mechanic.[6] Evans wrote two memos on behalf of Holmes at the sentencing portion of her federal trial in 2022.[7][16] In 2025, Holmes told People that the couple might marry someday.[5][7]
Evans and Holmes have two children, William (born 2021) and Invicta (born 2023).[7][5][17] Holmes has been serving her sentence at Federal Prison Camp, Bryan since May 2023, and Evans lives in Austin with their children.[5] Holmes gave him power of attorney when she began her sentence.[8] She is scheduled to move to a halfway house near Austin in August 2027.[5][7]
In media
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup, by author and journalist John Carreyrou, included discussion of the early relationship between Evans and Holmes, and their decision to start a family during her federal trial United States v. Elizabeth A. Holmes, et al.[18]
Evans featured in coverage of the trial of Elizabeth Holmes, in the podcast The Dropout by journalist Rebecca Jarvis.[19]
In the American biographical drama television miniseries, The Dropout, created by Elizabeth Meriwether, Evans was portrayed by actor Garrett Coffey.[20][21]
The film, You Can See Everything, began after Holmes contacted A24, which later brought in Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim.[22] Evans and Holmes gave the filmmakers access to their lives during the film's three-year production.[5][17][23] Fielder lived in the couple's home for about a month before Holmes began her prison sentence in May 2023.[5][24] The film was released in theaters in October 2026.[5][17] The Austin, Texas home featured in the film was valued at US$2.5 million.[23]
The film shows Holmes undergoing a full-body scan used to create an AI-generated avatar of her, which Evans controls.[25] He says that his power of attorney allows him to make decisions about her voice and likeness.[25] The film also shows Evans managing Holmes's X account.[6] He says that he often posts without her knowledge or approval, though he says that she writes about 80 percent of the posts.[26] Late in the film, during a meeting with A24 executives and Fielder, it is revealed that Evans demanded a share of the backend profits in exchange for unrestricted access to Elizabeth.[25] Because this meeting occurred after filming began but before contracts were signed, the scene is reenacted with actor Christopher Abbott playing Evans.[25] The film later reports that he dropped the demand.[25][26] On the All-In podcast, Evans said that the film's purpose was "to have people see who she is".[17]
Further reading
- Lin, Bilin (October 25, 2026), "Billy Evans's 'Theranos 2.0' startup has patents, investors, and a missing CTO—but no product", Fortune
- Vivinetto, Gina (October 16, 2026), "Who Is Billy Evans? Elizabeth Holmes' Partner Seen in 'You Can See Everything' Documentary", Today
- McCune, Melody (October 16, 2026), "Who Is Billy Evans?", Men's Journal