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Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by [John Carreyrou]

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John Carreyrou

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup Kindle Edition

by John Carreyrou (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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Winner of the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award 2018

"You will not want to put this riveting, masterfully reported book down. No matter how bad you think the Theranos story was, you'll learn that the reality was actually far worse." Bethany McLean, bestselling coauthor of The Smartest Guys in the Room and All the Devils Are Here

A New York Times bestseller to be adapted into a film with Jennifer Lawrence to star.

In 2014, Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes was widely seen as the female Steve Jobs: a brilliant Stanford dropout whose startup 'unicorn' promised to revolutionize the medical industry with a machine that would make blood tests significantly faster and easier. Backed by investors such as Larry Ellison and Tim Draper, Theranos sold shares in a fundraising round that valued the company at $9 billion, putting Holmes's worth at an estimated $4.7 billion. There was just one problem: the technology didn't work.

For years, Holmes had been misleading investors, FDA officials, and her own employees. When Carreyrou, working at the Wall Street Journal, got a tip from a former Theranos employee and started asking questions, both Carreyrou and the Journal were threatened with lawsuits. Undaunted, the newspaper ran the first of dozens of Theranos' articles in late 2015. By early 2017, the company's value was zero and Holmes faced potential legal action from the government and her investors.

In Bad Blood John Carreyrou tells the story of Theranos, and encourages us to consider the possible repercussions of our blind faith in a small group of brilliant individuals.

PRAISE FOR BAD BLOOD

"A dazzling story of deception in Silicon Valley. . .It is a tale of heroic cupidity on a scale that made the very best and the very brightest look like the very, very foolish . . . You will not be able to put this book down." Washington Post

"Chilling . . . Reads like a West Coast version of All the President's Men." New York Times Book Review

"Carreyrou presents the scientific, human, legal and social sides of the story in full. Although some of it was previously reported in his extensive coverage, he unveils many dark secrets of Theranos that have not previously been laid bare." Nature

"His [Carreyrou's] unmasking of Theranos is a tale of David and Goliath." Financial Times

Length: 333 pages	Word Wise: Enabled	Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
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The shocking true story of the biggest corporate fraud since Enron, a gripping cautionary tale set amid the bold promises and gold-rush frenzy of Silicon Valley. --This text refers to the paperback edition.

From the Publisher

John Carreyrou is a member of the <i>Wall Street Journal</i>'s investigative reporting team. He joined the <i>Journal </i>in 1999 and has been based in Brussels, Paris, and New York for the paper. John has covered a number of topics during his career, ranging from Islamist terrorism when he was on assignment in Europe to the pharmaceutical industry and the US healthcare system. His reporting on corruption in the field of spine surgery led to long prison terms for a California hospital owner and a Michigan neurosurgeon. His reporting on Theranos was recognized with a George Polk Award. --This text refers to the paperback edition.

Book Description

Review

11 Fantastic Science Books to Binge Over the Holidays. -- The Year in Review, 2018 * Wired * Engaging * The Economist * Bad Blood reveals a crucial truth: outside observers must act as the eyes, the ears and, most importantly, the voice of Silicon Valley's blind spot . . . It gambled not with our smart phones, our attention or our democracy, but with people's lives. * Paste * Simply one of the best books about a startup ever. * Forbes * Gripping . . . It is a parable, with all the usual, delicious ingredients of human folly: greed, pride, vanity, lust, anger. Above all, it is an analysis of the phenomenon of hype. * Daily Telegraph * Gripping . . . Carreyrou presents the scientific, human, legal and social sides of the story in full . . . He unveils many dark secrets of Theranos that have not previously been laid bare. * Nature * Carreyrou tells the story virtually to perfection . . . Bad Blood reads like a West Coast version of All the President's Men. * New York Times * Riveting . . . a blistering critique of Silicon Valley, a kind of nonfiction corollary to Dave Eggers's The Circle . . . compelling . . . [Carreyrou's] unmasking of Theranos is a tale of David and Goliath . . . The real heroes, though, are his sources: the young scientists who worked at the company and risked their reputations and careers by voicing their concerns. Were it not for their courage, Theranos might still be testing blood today -- David Crow * Financial Times * A dazzling story of deception in Silicon Valley . . . It is a tale of heroic cupidity on a scale that made the very best and the very brightest look like the very, very foolish . . . You will not be able to put this book down. * Washington Post * --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

John Carreyrou is a member of the Wall Street Journal's investigative reporting team. He joined the Journal in 1999 and has been based in Brussels, Paris, and New York for the paper. John has covered a number of topics during his career, ranging from Islamist terrorism when he was on assignment in Europe to the pharmaceutical industry and the US healthcare system. His reporting on corruption in the field of spine surgery led to long prison terms for a California hospital owner and a Michigan neurosurgeon. His reporting on Theranos was recognized with a George Polk Award.

Born in New York and raised in Paris, he currently resides in Brooklyn with his wife and three children.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Author

From the Back Cover

‘You will not want to put this riveting, masterfully reported book down.No matter how bad you think the Theranos story was, you’ll learn that the realitywas actually far worse.’ Bethany McLean, co-author of The Smartest Guys inthe Room and All the Devils are Here --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

From the Inside Flap

The full inside story of the breathtaking rise andshocking collapse of Theranos, the multibillion-dollar biotech startup, by theprize-winning journalist who first broke the story and pursued it to the end,despite pressure from Theranos’s charismatic CEO and threats by her lawyers.
In 2015, Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes waswidely seen as the female Steve Jobs: a brilliant Stanford dropout whosestartup ‘unicorn’ promised to revolutionize the medical industry with a machinethat would make blood testing significantly faster and easier. Backed byinvestors such as Oracle’s Larry Ellison and Tim Draper, Theranos sold sharesin a fundraising round that valued the company at more than $9 billion, puttingHolmes’s worth at an estimated $4.5 billion. There was just one problem: thetechnology didn’t work.
For years, Holmes had been misleading investors andretail partners such as Safeway and Walgreens. To hide the fact that itstechnology was flawed and had serious limitations, Theranos secretly usedcommercially available analysers to perform most of its blood tests. Meanwhile,Holmes and her partner, Sunny Balwani, fostered a mercurial and highlysecretive workplace environment in which Theranos employees routinely saw theircolleagues fired for raising red flags. Their deception would lead to nearlyone million false test results, some of which seriously jeopardized the healthof patients.
When John Carreyrou, a reporter at the Wall Street Journal,started asking questions, both Carreyrou and the Journal were threatenedwith lawsuits, as were many of Carreyrou’s sources. Undaunted, the newspaperran the first of dozens of Theranos articles in late 2015. By early 2017, thecompany’s value was zero, and in March 2018, the SEC charged Holmes withperpetrating ‘an elaborate, years-long fraud’.
Here is thegripping story of the biggest corporate fraud since Enron, a disturbingcautionary tale set amid the bold promises and gold-rush frenzy of SiliconValley.

--This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

ASIN : B07C8D75NZ
Publisher : Picador (29 May 2018)
Language : English
File size : 586 KB
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 333 pages

Best Sellers Rank: 15,203 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
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garymq

The Rise and Fall of Theranos

Reviewed in Australia on 5 November 2018

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This book is hard to believe. I don't mean that I don't believe the story - I mean it's just so, so difficult to believe that so many smart people were fooled by a product that simply never worked.
This is the story of the spectacular rise and fall of a silicon valley startup that was going to change the world. Theranos was the brainchild of Elizabeth Holmes a twenty-something wunderkind. Its main product was going to revolutionize blood testing by doing away with nasty big needles and use a tiny drop of blood to perform hundreds of medical tests. It's a great idea - a shame it never got close to working.
With her wide blue eyes and unexpectedly deep voice, she bamboozled everyone. Carreyyou tells the long sordid tale, interviewing scared Theranos workers, doctors trying to use their products, and even distraught patients. But there is very little analysis. At the end of the book we still don't know how board members like George Schulz and Henry Kissinger (both previous US secretarys of state, successful business men and diplomats), and top investor Rupert Murdoch (super smart media mogul), and many other similarly accomplished men all invested literally hundreds of millions of dollars into this enterprise - without ever seeing anything remotely like a properly working machine. Entire boards of huge companies (such as Walgreens and Safeway) totally supported her project, and started the roll-out of defective devices in their stores. On top of all that, many doctors quickly saw that the results of the Theranos tests were wrong. But the caravan continued to roll on... people continued to invest vast amounts of money... business institutions continued to heap praise and awards on Ms Holmes. It is just crazy...It's not enough to just say Holmes had charisma and charm. There must be more to it than that. People really wanted it all to be true.
The book's release is somewhat premature. At the time of publication, Theranos was still a working company, although its workforce has been reduced from a spectacular 800 to a mere couple of dozen, and the law suites and investigations have a long way to go. We still don't know what penalties are going to be handed out to Holmes (and her shady co-conspirator, Sunny Balwani), if any, for their monstrous fraud.
The story is told in competent, if somewhat pedestrian style. The facts are there, but the person at the centre of the book, Elizabeth Holmes, remains a mystery. Was she just an extraordinarily gifted charlatan? Or a psychopath, having no empathy at all with the thousands of people she was harming? Even after her company has collapsed, she seems to show no contrition or even understanding of what she has done. Perhaps it will take another book to explain the psychology behind Holmes and those who fell under her spell.

2 people found this helpful

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EQ Expert

Three reasons I liked the book

Reviewed in Australia on 13 August 2018

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This is probably the book of 2018 with apologies to Jordan Peterson.
As a former venture capitalist for 25 years this book is fascinating reading. Most books derived from Silicon Valley are hagiographic biographies of successful founders. This tells the story of an unbelievable failure, namely the rise and fall of Theranos.
The company was founded in 2003 by 19-year-old Elizabeth Holmes. It raised more than $700 million and achieved a maximum valuation of $10 billion in 2013. Theranos operated in the blood testing market claimed its technology was revolutionary and that its tests required only about 1/100 to 1/1,000 of the amount of blood that would ordinarily be needed and cost far less than existing tests.
The problem was the technology did not work but this did not Holmes and her Chief Operating Officer, Sunny Balwani, acting dishonestly to raise money from investors and signing contracts with Walgreens and Safeway. Various employees along the journey tried to act as whistle-blowers either about the technology or financial projections. Every time they were accused of not being a team player, summarily dismissed, made to sign non-disclosure agreements, and threatened with lawsuits from the highest profile lawyer in the USA, David Boies.
The turning point was in October 2015, when investigative reporter John Carreyrou of The Wall Street Journal questioned the validity of Theranos' technology. Since then, the company has faced a string of legal and commercial challenges from medical authorities, investors, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), state attorneys general, former business partners, patients, and others. Bad Blood published in May 2018 chronicles the decline. On June 15, 2018, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California announced the indictment of Holmes on wire fraud and conspiracy charges. Balwani was also indicted on the same charges. What amazes me is that Holmes, while no longer CEO, is still the Chairman of Theranos.
My favourite take-aways from the book are three. Firstly Holmes tried every trick to stop Carreyrou publishing his first article. In particular she lobbied Rupert Murdoch, owner of the Wall Street Journal, and who had invested $125 million in Theranos. Rupert, to his credit, said he did not interfere in the editorial side of his businesses and let the article run.
Secondly Carreyrou trying to work out what made Holmes tick suggests she is a sociopath. I disagree, she is a corporate psychopath, totally genetically driven by the desire to make money and if not blessed with a moral compass will unreserved lie and use fraudulent methods to achieve economic success. Holmes is Hustler/GoGetter in my emotional intelligence profiling technology. The giveaway was when she was nine years old and asked what she want to be when she grew up, she replied a billionaire. When she was asked whether she would rather be President, she said no because the President would want to marry her because she had a billion dollars.
Finally, Carreyrou is mystified by the relationship between Holmes and Balwani in that they were in a relationship together. One of great lessons of my emotional intelligence workshops is that we like those who are like ourselves. Balwani was as a much a psychopath as Holmes. He would fake his scientific knowledge causing much humour among his employees but was utterly ruthless in his treatment of them.
One can only have sympathy for the employees of Theranos. Working for one corporate psychopath at the top is bad but working for two psychopaths at the top would be unbearable.

3 people found this helpful

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Unicorns & FOMO

Reviewed in Australia on 24 July 2019

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What an incredible shame the Theranos start up turned out to be. It's a wonder that it took so long for people to become aware of what had been happening for a very long time. The intimidation tactics, bullying, threats to employees... money is often the justification people use to hide behind their ugly behaviours.

It is a great breakdown of what had occurred. Hindsight is an Equalizer of the should have, would have, could haves that never took place by all those important influencers who were silent unaware contributors. Perhaps some knew and were too deeply financially invested.

What an incredible disappointment the whole situation turned out to be. Kudos to the whistle blowers. When Billions are at stake, being the ones to speak out is no small gesture of bravery.

Highly recommended read.

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sonjabs

Oh My GOODNESS what an eye opener

Reviewed in Australia on 25 March 2019

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This is indeed a sad sad sad book. The tale of how almost one billion $ was wasted over 10 years of lies and deceit. As a female technology business owner I found this recounting of the life and business as both frustrating and fascinating. SO SAD that as humankind we continue to fall for anything that looks glossy and sounds fantastical.

THIS IS A MUST READ and take heed tale.

One person found this helpful

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Natalia Rice

The best read of the season; the author deserves an award.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 July 2018

Verified Purchase

Drop everything you're doing and start reading it. It's an utterly engaging mix of genres - investigative journalism, psychology (at times psychiatry), organisational behaviour, business & science reporting, and a story of worst and best of the humankind. I've cancelled meetings and events, delayed going to bed just to keep reading this book - the story is almost surreal, and it's hard to believe it really happened, and yet it did.
I'd like to compliment the author. The depth of the investigation is extraordinary; but most importantly, the narration is done in this perfect documentary style when even the most chilling events are described with high precision but without falling into emotional judgement.

I also would like to say a big thank you to all the sources and contributors who made this book possible. You're very brave people; I applaud your courage and ethics.

91 people found this helpful

CPJ

One of the best written books I have read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 28 July 2018

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This has to be one of the best written books I have read, the style of writing is clear and concise, not overly complex or long winded as often happens with such complex business story. The flow of the writing and story telling is also excellent, it’s an extremely comfortable and enjoyable read. Given how we’ll this book is written I possibly would have enjoyed it even if it had not covered such a interesting topic.

This story is fascinating, having worked in the software and technology industry for many year, this book rings true, its always shocking to see how unwilling people are to ask the hard question and speak up, even when its clear something is clear wrong within a company.

It’s a modern day emperor's new clothes, where even big name software and investment entrepreneur can’t see the woods for the trees.

19 people found this helpful

Denise

The author deserves a gazillion awards

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 9 August 2018

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At a time when trust in media is at an all time low in the US, this book reminds us why investigative journalism is still needed to help ordinary people cut through the bullsh*t and see things for what they actually are. This book, which is not only well written and gripping from chapter to chapter, does a brilliant job of showing rather than telling. It is a must-read for anyone who wants to avoid being bewitched by shiny things and big promises. What a great read. Now that I'm done, everything else seems to pale in comparison!

20 people found this helpful

David

If something sounds too good to be true it probably is.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 April 2019

Verified Purchase

I missed this book when it launched, but Alex Gibney's excellent 2019 HBO doucmentry 'The Inventor: Out for blood in Silicon Valley' prompted my purchase.
Carryrou's book covers three and a half years of investigation into Theranos, its founder Elizabeth Holmes and her meteoric rise and spectacular fall in the obsessive pursuit of a dream. Its a fascinating read and Carryrou uses his research to tell the story from the beginning. The story of his investigations as a Wall Street Journal reporter follows the cronological order of events and is documented towards the end of the book.

Essentially, Elizabeth Holmes developed a start-up in Silicon Valley where she attempted to develop a device which could provide multiple blood test analyses for a range of conditions and diseases in a box not much larger that a large bread-bin. For the user only a small pinprick of blood was required to complete all these tests.
This would be a game changer. Some day, every home could have one and for a small charge could carry out blood tests and have them analysed almost immediately, providing early warning of developing conditions. What's not to like? Nothing it seemed.
What makes this book so fascinating, as well as the central characters and story, are the themes it explores such as:

Greed and denial
The historty of Silicon Valley start-ups is one where investors always try and get in at the beginning of potentially novel ideas and make a killing. Think Google, Facebook and Uber. Two things drive this. The idea and the confidence/ expertise/drive of those taking it forward. In the case of Theranos Elizabeth Holmes force of personality outweighed any doubts about the concept or the execution. However at the time she started Theranos, she was 19 and a Stanford dropout with no experience in blood testing whatsoever, beyond a grand idea and good connections.
Holmes exerted an almost Svengali like hold of the people in her orbit. This is partly to do with her physical appearance. Tall; striking blue unblinking eyes; dessed in black turtle necks (a la Steve Jobs) and speaking in a baritone voice. Supremely confident in both her idea and herself she managed to persuade and recruit a Board of former ex- Government Cabinet members; a 4 star General (Jim Mattis of Trump fame) and big name investors, who blinded by either the promise of the idea or the money to be made from it, were sufficiently incurous as to seek the detail of how this invention actually worked. People and organisations such as Walgreens were happy to put hundreds of millions of dollars investment into Theranos without demanding independent expert due diligence of the product.
At the time of Theranos's demise it was valued as a private company at $9bn, with Holmes's share of that valuation at $4.5. Up to that point no investor in Theranos had seen the inner working of the product or questioned the fabulous claims made for it. Neither had any member of her company Board.

Secrecy and lies
Holmes and her senior executive partner were secretive to the point of paranoia over their idea. Two reasons for this. First they were genuinely concerned about their ideas being stolen, but as time went on and they could not get their invention to work the secrecy hid a raft of corner cutting, false promises and outright lies as to how the equipment was performing. Only those in Theranos working on the project could see how far from the truth the claimes Holmes made for the product and its readiness to market actually were. Some turned a blind eye while those with professional or ethical concerns were either fired or left, all under rigourous confidentiality clauses.
This secrecy coupled with an agressive management style also stifiled the creative initiative of the Theranos team. Knowledge was power and developers were deliberately siloed to ensure they only worked on their own area so the ability to share thinking across the firm was severly limited.

Weaponising the law
What I found perhaps most shocking of all is the way the agressive use of the threat of litigation is used to force compliance, especially against those who cannot financially afford to fight their corner. The lawyers who command the most fees are the legal pit bulls of the industry. Holmes spares no expense in protecting her secrets and covering her lies with the determined use of agressive legal firms and the threats of legal action to force whistleblowers to keep silent. This extends to Carryrou as well. Of the $900m raised by Holmes in her third funding round, $300m went on lawyers fees!

Regulatory incuriousity
The FDA and other regulators seemed broadly incurious about the claims for this machine and remained so until things started to go badly wrong when what was essentially an idea at prototype stage went live to the public. The degree to which private companies can avoid such scrutiny is alarming.

The debate is still ongoing as to whether Holmes deliberately misled or had sociopathic tendencies. The story is not over. She is now charged with alleged Federal and SEC crimes which carry up to 20 years in prison.

I highly recommend this book, which I think will become a textbook on leadership, governance failure and greed.I also recommend Gibney's HBO documentary which brings to life the people and events in the book, not least Elizabeth Holmes herself. It also adds visual detail on the development of the blood testing device in the way Carryrou's book can not.

Hope this is helpful.

12 people found this helpful

M Mansour

Best business book of 2018 (so far)

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 August 2018

Verified Purchase

I read this book in straight 48 hours since boarding a long-haul flight. Mesmerising, excellently researched, gripping..just could not put it down. This is a moral story comprising the ugly greed laden face of Silicon Valley and its founders, the army of ruthless lawyers squashing people along the way (they tried to silence the author of this book), the cult-ish abandonment of common sense and judgement of who's who of Silicon Valley and Corporate America as they pursue the next big thing. Nevermind that actual people's health and well being were at serious risk and not just their dollars.

15 people found this helpful

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