NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The gripping story of Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos—one of the biggest corporate frauds in history—a tale of ambition and hubris set amid the bold promises of Silicon Valley, rigorously reported by the prize-winning journalist. With a new Afterword.“Chilling … Reads like a thriller … Carreyrou tells [the Theranos story] virtually to perfection.” —The New York Times Book … virtually to perfection.” —The New York Times Book Review
In 2014, Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes was widely seen as the next Steve Jobs: a brilliant Stanford dropout whose startup “unicorn” promised to revolutionize the medical industry with its breakthrough device, which performed the whole range of laboratory tests from a single drop of blood. Backed by investors such as Larry Ellison and Tim Draper, Theranos sold shares in a fundraising round that valued the company at more than $9 billion, putting Holmes’s worth at an estimated $4.5 billion. There was just one problem: The technology didn’t work. Erroneous results put patients in danger, leading to misdiagnoses and unnecessary treatments. All the while, Holmes and her partner, Sunny Balwani, worked to silence anyone who voiced misgivings—from journalists to their own employees.
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What a read! I’ve heard about this tale from a far but never really knew the details of how Theranos worked on the inside. This is a great quick read on how not to run a company and what kind of company to run away from. Each chapter I thought would be when the bad would end but it progressively got worse the whole way through. A nice light read that reads like fiction but is non-fiction.
This is an amazing story that sucked me in and kept me up late. The story of Theranos, Elizabeth Holmes, and their fraud is remarkable, while John Carreyou’s investigation and reporting are top-notch.
Beyond the character study of Holmes and the case study of startup mismanagement, I was amazed to learn that if Carreyrou hadn’t gotten a few lucky breaks, his story wouldn’t have been published and the fraud would have continued.
“Bad Blood” is a great non-fiction book that reads like a fiction one! I couldn’t stop reading about Elizabeth Holmes and the craziness that went on at her start up — Theranos. It really affected my view of Silicon Valley, startup valuations, and the healthcare industry. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a well researched book with a fast exciting pace!
This is a deeply fascinating read. Somehow, I was fully ignorant of the Theranos drama and the infamy of Elizabeth Holmes, so going into this book, I had absolutely no idea what to expect. And, to be honest, for about the first 50%, I wasn’t all that impressed. I didn’t appreciate how John Carreyrou painted the story of the early years of the company. He spoke of Elizabeth Holmes as some kind of Silicon Valley ingénue, blonde and attractive and idealistic, with an obsession with Steve Jobs so sincere that she dressed in black turtlenecks and lowered her voice to appear as masculine as her idol. Carreyrou mentioned her intelligence, but it seemed that every person involved with Theranos, many of them men with long-standing, illustrious careers either in the startup space or in biochemistry, were presented as falling for Elizabeth’s arresting blue eyes and doe-like gaze. There is little to convince the reader than any sane human not hypnotized by Elizabeth’s looks would have ever stayed at Theranos, and yet, many did. Despite high turnover, many of Silicon Valley’s brightest joined the company ranks, and I wanted to see a version of the story where Theranos was not knowingly doomed. Why did people stay? And what was the world outside the company walls believing? Holmes was profiled by countless magazines and news outlets, touted as a leading female entrepreneur in a time of innovation dominated by men, and I wanted to see that compelling side of the story that would convince me how a company that seemed so fatally designed lasted for so long without repercussion.
All that being said, the last 50% of the book detailing the breaking of the story in the Wall Street Journal and the downfall of the company was utterly engaging. The truth of Holmes as a deeply flawed leader with a serious bend toward delusion and perhaps a dismissal of real empathy and compassion came to fruition in the exposure of the company as a fraudulent exercise in disruptive product development. I’ve spent a lot time after finishing this book watching videos of this young woman with her sincere gaze as she promises the revolution of health care. It’s a story that rings true to this era dominated by hero-like figures breaking boundaries with new tech, by women trying to find their voice in male-led fields, and speaks to how far media and visionary hype can carry something unproven. I would definitely recommend this book, alongside many hours of rabbit-holing through articles, video clips, and magazine covers that show, almost eerily, just how revered this woman was before her reputation came crashing down.
Oh man this was a great read. Would recommend it to all readers, as it combines incredibly well researched journalism and a fast-paced narrative structure. Even if you’ve already consumed a lot of this story via podcasts and articles, this book provides so much more depth on Holmes, her background, specific anecdotes, and how she garnered so much power. Plus, it’s written from by the journalist at the center of exposing Theranos, which makes it all the more fascinating of a perspective as Carryerou himself becomes a character in the story (I think I was most impressed with his decisions in how to insert himself and when). Pick it up for a fast-paced, fascinating nonfiction read!
Several good friends recommended this to me, and I’m so happy I finally got my hands on it. I love non-fiction that reads as easily as fiction, and Bad Blood falls into that category. The story of Theranos and how it managed to survive for so long despite it’s fraudulent claims is both frightening and remarkable. It’s especially interesting to hear it straight from the reporter who originally broke the story. I haven’t looked at startups the same way since finishing this book!
The story of the meteoric rise and spectacular fall of the start-up blood testing company, Theranos, and its precocious young founder, Elizabeth Holmes, is an amazing story. If it weren’t true, you’d never believe it. Telling that story in a coherent and entertaining fashion is a herculean task that journalist John Carryrou has done wonderfully in this book. There are a lot of people and a lot of moving parts, and the author weaves them together flawlessly into a yarn that will make your blood boil.
Rather than tell the story entirely from the author’s point of view as the journalist who broke the story, the first half of the book is a narrative about Elizabeth Holmes and her rise to Silicon Valley stardom. It reads like a novel more than a documentary or a news report, as Carryrou guides the reader through her ideas as a nineteen-year-old Stanford drop-out that morphed into her idea for a portable low-cost blood testing system that could be run on small amounts of blood drawn from finger-sticks rather than from venous needle draws. The idea was wonderful, and would have the potential to revolutionize the blood testing industry. The problem, of course, is that developing such a system would take years if not decades of painstaking research and development, followed by extensive clinical trials and accuracy authentication to establish that the small-quantity blood tests were as accurate as the traditional laboratory tests. But, Elizabeth Holmes was not a person who liked to wait around for such things. She wanted to market the product and make millions. She did just that, even though the technology didn’t work.
The most amazing thing about the story is not that Holmes tried to get away with it, it’s that so many people allowed her to succeed. Government regulators were lax. Investors were hoodwinked. High-profile politicians and business leaders were lured onto her Board of Directors, which gave legitimacy to the company. Rupert Murdoch, the sire of News Corporation, and owner of The Wall Street Journal invested $125 million of his own money in the company – only to see his paper bring it down and render it worthless.
The story is truly amazing, and this book boils it all down to a manageable narrative that has a brisk pace and leaves you scratching your head, but in the end understanding how it happened. Elizabeth Holmes was a master salesman, and everyone involved wanted her claims to be true. She spouted them so confidently, and then brought down an iron fist on any worker who thought about breaching her draconian confidentiality agreement and sued the pants off of anyone who got in her way. Lawyer David Boies enabled her, as did many others. In the end, the truth won out, but in a different world where The Wall Street Journal refused to back down and several key witnesses refused to be intimidated, Theranos could have continued spewing out false test results for years before anyone knew the truth.
This is an important book, and one that is a pleasure to read. Well done all around. One of the best non-fiction books you will read.
This was a selection of our Book Club & what a pick it was. Unbelievable how this CEO/Founder of Theranos, Elizabeth Holmes, along with her boyfriend, Sunny, could persuade, lie & cheat so that many really smart people would invest into her company. How they just went along without really looking into behind the product, a blood testing device, to see if it really does work. This case is still on-going today & this book is being made into a film. A must-read!
It’s mind-boggling that so many high profile people in government and business can be so easily bamboozled. What were they thinking?
Astonishingly researched, with a subject so disturbing that it’s difficult to believe it could happen. This brilliant non-fiction is more riveting than fiction. Utterly compelling, and compellingly important.
As an electrical engineer with my own startup experience in 1990, I found this story deeply unsettling yet absolutely fascinating.
Nonfiction and absolutely scary to know that an attractive blond 19 year old Stanford dropout can hold such sway over our most important government DOJ officials, corporate pharmaceutical industries and be so easily mesmerizing that to this day she is still calling the shots. Her court date has been moved due to pregnancy. What about Sunny? These people and our military industrial complex are a joke to our nation and the media needs to pay attention. Great writing and a great listen is you have it on audio book.
a well told story of how greed and ignorance permeates the wonderful world of silicone valley and the highest levels of big business and government. not the first time this has happened and probably wont be the last either.
Great investigative reporting, story of how hard it is to uncover corporate shenanigans.
The lengths this woman went to in order to be a millionaire are jaw-dropping. This whole story is crazy. I couldn’t stop reading it.
Review #23 of my 52 week book challenge: Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startupu2063
Hubris, stupidity, and a touch of sociopathy pretty much sum up our anti-hero, Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes. u2063
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It boggles the mind how this sort of scam could happen. Much like Review #7, Billion Dollar Whale, it seems to happen more often than not. My ultimate question in finishing the book, though, is how much blame we should be placing on Holmes. She operated within an ecosystem of encouragement at all levels, including from the world’s most influential people. While they may have had the wool pulled over their eyes, due diligence (even just a bit) would have made things clear. u2063
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Read at your own peril, as it will certainly make the blood boil. u2063
Wow. This is not the kind of book I would typically pick up. A book all about big corporate fraud? No thanks. Sounds boring, not to mention confusing. But this is good. Very good. Carreyrou wrote it very well and I found myself completely sucked in, wanting only to listen to the book and find out how everything goes does. And now I’m so curious I’m googling Holmes and reading everything else I can find. I am disgusted about Elizabeth Holmes and Sonny, with all the lies they told and the lives they willingly put in jeopardy to further their fame and wealth. I am absolutely flabbergasted that anyone would think running a business the way they were trying to would make for good business. Talk about paranoid! I’m heartbroken about the many employees whose lives were so totally altered because of working for Theranos. But I’m glad some one was finally brave enough to break the ice of fear and tell someone what was happening so that more lives weren’t harmed. Phew!
Note: several uses of the f-word, when quoting directly from other people.
AUDIOBOOK REVIEW: Read by Will Damron—Will does a fine job reading this book and wasn’t boring to listen to at all.
Amazing true life stranger than fiction tale…you keep thinking, there’s no way this keeps going…and it does. Great fun
This is an excellent book. The author clearly did his research on the topic (obviously because he wrote the original article). He provided good explanations on the science behind the assays and the process to obtain valid results. The one downside to this book is the number of names mentioned; I kept forgetting them and why they were important/relevant to the story.
It’s a fascinating story because Elizabeth Holmes would have revolutionized the health care/biotechnology industry if this had actually worked. Everytime the scientists and engineers told her that couldn’t yet be done or that they needed to make changes with the designs, she ignored them and pretended like there were no problems for investors. It was amazing how many people she was able to convince people to invest in her company when she knew she had nothing that actually worked.
Author John Carreyrou takes what could be a very boring and hard to comprehend subject—new scientific equipment and procedures to analyze blood—and crafts an easy to follow tale of a Silicon Valley start-up that went all wrong. It’s a fascinating story about how even the biggest corporations can get sucked in because of FOMO (fear of missing out) and duped to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. All at the hands of a 20-something woman with the gift of gab.