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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Of all the descriptors I could think of none was more apt than, shocking. I literally read this book with my mouth hanging open. As a physician, scientist, and author I was amazed at the story John Carreyruo unraveled. He did a superb job telling it. This is investigative journalism at its best. I can’t wait for the film to come out. Elizabeth Holmes makes Bernie Madoff look like an amateur. The list of people duped is incredible. And to think she almost pulled it off.
Entertaining and well-written, this book should be mandatory reading for anyone interested in business ethics, investing or the integrity of the health care system–and, most of all, for ex-government officials tempted to lever their reputations into board fees and equity interests in early-stage companies they know nothing about.
/ 5
Well I can safely say that Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou completely blew me away!
I had more than one person recommend this book to me, and I am very glad I decided to take their advice. I am also especially happy that I chose to listen to it on audio since the narrator, Will Damron, was fantastic. I don’t think I can say that I have ever read a book about business that has made me as angry as Bad Blood did. I couldn’t believe the greed that Elizabeth Holmes had was so high, that it completely ended up blinding her to how awful she was treating people, and how unsafe she was making people that used their technology. She just had no respect for people and was completely narcissistic. The things that happen will both surprise and fascinate you, and I don’t think I am going to be upset if I never hear the term ‘trade secrets’ ever again.
Prior to listening to this book, I had not heard of either Theranos or Holmes because clearly I have been living under a rock. So it was especially fascinating for me to listen to this whole fiasco, and my heart hurt for some of the people Carreyrou focused on in the story. Theranos was a complete travesty of a company and I learned things that shocked and appalled me. If you aren’t familiar with the story of Holmes and Theranos then I highly recommend checking this one out and enlightening yourself.
Song/s the book brought to mind: Virtual Insanity by Jamiroquai
Final Thought: The time flew by while I was listening to Bad Blood, and while some things were a bit confusing since they are so technical, I think Carreyrou did an amazing job of breaking things down and explaining in a way people who are nontechnical (like me) could understand. I think it might be better to read this book for that reason, but I still loved the audio version and don’t regret it at all since I eventually caught on to everything being described. Buckle your seat belts kids, because this book is one bumpy ride.
Eye opening, educational
Just WOW, what a scary person with no moral core! Interesting how she got so many smart people in high places involved n her scam!
This is the true story of Elizabeth Holmes and her company Theranos. She claimed that she was going to be able to run 100s of blood test from a drop of blood. She wanted to prevent people from painful bloodraws and also put this technology in people’s homes so that diseases could be caught earlier, and could be better managed.
The reality was – she had nothing. No working product, no ability to draw such a small amount of blood and get accurate results. But she lied for over a decade and took millions and millions of dollars from unsuspecting companies and people. All of her employees had to sign agreements not to talk when they were either fired or quit their jobs. It took one brave young employee that finally talked to the Wall Street Journal that brought the truth to light.
This was an incredible book. I could not stop shaking my head at the fact that for 12 years this company existed, took money, and had nothing. No product. It is baffling that this woman and the people closest to her were able to pull this off. Walgreens even bought it. People like Ruper Mudoch bought into it. They believed every lie she told. The test that she said her machine could run all came back incorrect. Or didn’t work at all. Employees came and went through a revolving door – not lasting long once inside and discovering what was really going on.
Today – Elizabeth Holmes company no longer exist. She and her ex-boyfriend Sunny who ran this company are on trial for a 20 year jail sentence. All the money is gone. The trial is set for June 2020 to determine if they go to jail for what they did. The could have killed people.
I recently watched the 20/20 episode on this story and it pulled the book together. And a movie is in the works. I am anxious to see where this all ends for Elizabeth Holmes. My hope is jail.
The book is really good. It is well written and thoughtful. It pieces together the story from her leaving Stanford at age 19 all the way up until present day. You watch it unfold in an “after the fact” fashion where it makes it hard to believe that people fell for this. However – if you truly didn’t know what was going on behind closed doors, I would have fallen for it too.
Don’t miss this read – it is worth it.
Perpetrating a fraud that draws such a wide net of the rich and famous would seem impossible human nature set the stage for one of the biggest medical innovation scams of our time
You can’t make this stuff up.
Life is stranger than fiction.
Cautionary tale of charisma and how even the brightest minds can fall for this – here a sociopath duped people the likes of former Secretary of State Schultz and many other investors as well as plenty of other business leaders (never mind the press until the truth eventually came out).
This book is bananas. Elizabeth Holmes is still a mystery, and I believe she really did want to help people and change the world in a good way, but she was living in a fantasy world. Also all the people who were blinded by her so-called genius were old, white men who fell for a blonde woman with big unblinking eyes and a fake deep voice who wanted to be the next Steve Jobs. Why did people, especially high profile and well known intelligent men fall for her? Why were they willing to lose millions of dollars and not care? What spell did she have over people?
Bad Blood describes one big long con that should have ended within years of Holmes running the company. So many unanswered questions as to why so many fell for her lies? Your jaw will be around your knees while you read because it’s shocking and so unbelievable it can’t be real. So many why’s still left unanswered. Also a great insight on people’s perception about another and why so many were willing to be made fools of. This book will have you shaking your head in disbelief. A great read that grabs you by the throat and doesn’t let go until the last page.
I don’t usually read books like this, but BAD BLOOD was mesmerizing. It’s about Elizabeth Holmes and her lies and deceptions while building her blood-testing company, Theranos. The book reads like a business detective story—I couldn’t put it down.
Crazy ride through Elizabeth Holmes’ Theranos. The power of one person to convince others of something that is not true is incomprehensible.
A total knock out!!!
I finished it in a night.
One of the best books I have read in awhile. Page-turner about a billionaire con woman in Silicon Valley. Reads like a novel.
what a Scam she pulled off in Silicone Valley. Read it and see for yourself.
Read about how a Silicone Valley bubble was burst by investigative journalism. Great non-fiction read!
Fascinating!
Bad Blood is an extremely well written account of the astonishing case of Elizabeth Holmes and her ego-centric, maniacal quest to develop a fast, easy way to collect blood specimens and conduct lab analyses with tiny amounts of blood, using a small machine that patients could use at home to monitor various health conditions. Sounds too good to be true? Well, in fact, her concept was not possible to realize. She had been able to raise large amounts of money in the fast-paced Silicon Valley market and rather than accept failure, she drove her employees with unreasonable demands and falsified lab results to her industry partners. The fall of her house of cards is carefully documented and reads like a fascinating detective story – never boring, even when explaining technical material. I highly recommend this book.
Ny favorite book of 2018. This a page turner like no other. Fascinating!
The question you will have in your mind as you read this is “How could Elizabeth Holmes fooled so many people and gotten away with her deception for so many years?” The deception and lies she and her “boyfriend” Sunny unleash on everyone they meet clearly exposes them as pathological liars at best and criminal sociopaths at worst. Their behaviors conjure up Bernie Madoff and the Enron scumbags. Kudos to John Carreyrou for first exposing them in the WSJ and telling the complete story in this impeccably researched and well-told book. I can’t wait for the movie from Director Adam McKay (The Big Short, Vice) and starring no less than Jennifer Lawrence.