The CEO and founder of futuristic blood testing firm Theranos Inc. (Palo Alto, CA), Elizabeth Holmes, has broken her customary silence to grant Wired magazine a softball interview published online on February 18. The article didn't really tell us anything new about the blood-testing company or its plans, but did include a glamor shot of the 30-year-old Holmes complete with "Hair and makeup by..." credit. Not the usual stuff of CEO photos.

Still, something must be afoot at Theranos, even if it's only that they've decided the time has come to raise their profile. 

Theranos intends to revolutionize blood tests. It says it can perform a "full range" of lab tests on a single drop of blood, and do it faster and cheaper than a standard lab. In fact, Theranos says that if all blood tests in the United States were performed using its technology, it would save Medicare and Medicaid more than $200 billion over the next decade. The company says its tests are standardized and automated to subtract the error-prone human element from the procedure. According to Theranos' website, their "patented technology can analyze samples as small as 1/1000 the size of the typical blood draw." And their tests "are certified in our CLIA laboratory and cover a full range from blood, urine, and other samples."

Last fall, after about 10 years of development, Theranos opened its first in-store sample-collection location at a Walgreens pharmacy near its headquarters. A month later, two more locations were added, in Phoenix and Scottsdale, AZ. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal's Joseph Rago last September, Holmes said her long-term goal was to have a Theranos collection site "within five miles of virtually every American home." And they have a deal with Walgreens that may soon put that goal within reach.

Not only for its long incubaton period, Theranos is not your ordinary Silicon Valley startup. According to Ron Leuty in his story for the San Francisco Business Times, the company has raised "at least $100 million over the past 10 years."

And Rago says the Palo Alto research park space the company currently occupies was "once home to Facebook, and before that, Hewlett-Packard." The place must have the vibes of success just emanating from the walls.

And their board of directors includes some heavy hitters indeed. Sitting on the board of this startup are former secretaries of state Henry Kissinger and George P. Shultz, former secretary of defense William J. Perry, and former senator Sam Nunn. Also on the board are Richard Kovacevich, former Wells Fargo CEO and chairman of the board, former commandant of the US Naval Academy and retired admiral Gary Roughead, and retired Marine Corps general James N. Mattis.

So one wonders what Theranos might have up its sleeve. Are they merely preparing for a wider rollout, or is it something else?

Stephen Levy is a contributor to Qmed and MPMN.