Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup - Bad Blood

One of the best nonfiction books I've ever read. Carreyrou does a good job of explaining the science behind blood testing/assays in layman's terms. Parts of this book read like fiction because of how unbelievable the (true) story became.

Great story, I finished the whole on a long flight trip and can't stop reading it during the flight. Really respect the author and all the people who stood up to disclose this fraud conducted by Theranos.

Incredible story...hard to believe this actually happens outside of a movie. Shows that not all industries can apply the silicon valley playbook for software disruption,esp healthcare where human lives are at stake. Must read!

Crazy story about how Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos. I found the book repetitive at times... I think you can get the whole story by reading his investigative pieces in the WSJ. Still a fun read but not the most well written book.

John Carreyou's book may have been a little bit premature since this story is far from over (Elizabeth Holmes is trying to raise money for another start-up as I write this,) but it is unquestionably fine writing, well-sourced, with a vivid description of all the foibles of the characters involved.

While I might not call Elizabeth Holmes a sociopath, she is clearly immature, paranoid, and delusional. Silicon Valley likes to make fun of religion, but the author exposes the sick cult that built the Palo Alto cathedrals of excess and deception.

The sick old men of power- Schultz, Mattis, Frist, and the Theranos board- are exposed as drooling fools beguiled by blonde hair, a black turtleneck, and a put-on deep voice.

This is a drama worthy of any gothic novel, where countless high tech suitors throw themselves at the feet of a megalomaniac Scarlett and her secret Rhett. Good times, with indictments and a Hollywood movie to come.

You keep wondering how they managed to keep this charade going for so long with their glorified glue robot that was going to change the world. The book is entertaining until you consider they were playing with peoples health and potentially their lives with this nonsense. A lot of famous names got led around by the nose in this debacle.

This book was written by the journalist who uncovered this fraud. It is nice to have the information in one place. Having said that I have to say I was somewhat disappointed. Unlike the "superstars" of this genre, Carreyrou doesn't seem able to make the various characters come alive. This has the potential to be a "Big Short" sort of story...doubtless the movie is in the works. But its rather dry as a read.

This book provides insightful view of the Theranos disaster. I enjoyed reading the book in one setting, and the author explains the intricacies of laboratory testing in understandable style. Excellent job, Mr. Carreyrou!

This works in tech, not so well in health care. The book documents the rise and fall of a Silicon Valley unicorn that risked the health of patients with its bluster. It also shows how while blatant lies and threats can take you far, it cannot take you down the entire road. Eventually, if you don’t have substance, you don’t have momentum.

John Carreyou has given us is an incredible cautionary tale of hubris. This compelling story reads like a thriller and keeps the reader engaged from cover to cover. I had been following this story in the press since 2015 and I thought I was reasonably well informed about the Theranos story. Turns out what I knew barely scratched the surface.

I wish all media reporters were like this.....report the NEWS, report the OBJECTIVE TRUTH, not some left wing hack political agenda. This is a fantastic piece of journalism, I wish others in the media would take note. An amazing true story of how so many were flat out fooled by a slick sales pitch, and it is a treatise on how NOT to run a company...(Sunni Balwani, you are disgrace to the corporate world, soon your lack of a digital footprint will be changed)

Once I started reading “Bad Blood” it was hard to put it down. John Carreyrou told an amazing (and true) story about how a woman who dropped out of Stanford at age 19 could hoodwink so many intelligent people in her quest to achieve her childhood dream of becoming a billionaire.

The scary part is how Elizabeth Homes, with an ample assist from her boyfriend Sunny Balwani, could behave in the consistently ruthless manner she did, all the while telling whatever lies she had to in order to achieve her ambitions for Theranos.

The real value in this book for me, who is an individual investor with a decent sized portfolio, is one of “buyer beware” when it comes to what you believe from someone’s funding pitch for their start-up. There is no substitution for the proper amount of due diligence and even then an accomplished con artist like Elizabeth Holmes can still pull the wool over your eyes.

Great book — I highly recommend it!

I don't normally write reviews but this is hands down one of my favorite books. I stayed up late reading it and just could NOT put it down. It is incredibly researched and I hope it wins some awards. There is so much to unpack I don't even know where to begin. Regardless, I'll be encouraging all of my students to read this in my research department.

You know, I have absolutely no criticism of this book. It's simple, if you want to know about the Theranos debacle, this is where you start and likely finish. I hope he continues his investigation during her trial.

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup

This is a book written by John Carreyrou, a Wall Street Journal investigative reporter
It is saga of Elizabeth Anne Holmes who started at 19 a blood monitoring company with best intentions in the world, to make the patients safer. She cited the fact that an estimated one hundred thousand Americans died each year from adverse drug reactions. Theranos the company Elizabeth founded - would eliminate all those deaths, she said. It would quite literally save lives.
ad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup

She worshipped Jobs and Apple. She liked to call Theranos’s blood-testing system “the iPod of health care” and predicted that, like Apple’s ubiquitous products, it would someday be in every household in the country."
This is the Silicon Valley I dreamt of.

"On her father’s side, she was descended from Charles Louis Fleischmann, a Hungarian immigrant who founded a thriving business known as the Fleischmann Yeast Company. Its remarkable success turned the Fleischmanns into one of the wealthiest families in America at the turn of the twentieth century." Charles Louis Fleischmann was not only Hungarian, he was of Jewish descent, although it seems he was not a practicing Jew.

Smoking cigarettes while reading the Talmud

This story is from a book called "The complete Idiot's Guide to Jewish Spirituality and Mysticism" by Michael Levin A yeshiva student comes home on Sabbath afternoon and finds his father reading the Talmud and smoking a cigarette. He is shocked: smoking is forbidden on the Sabbath. The father noticed his son is stunned by his behavior. He said:

"When you know as much Talmud as I do, you too can smoke a cigarette on Sabbath"

People may become self-righteous for keeping their obligations like studying the Torah and feel the rules don't apply to them. They lost the fear of God and their humility. There is no spirituality and no kindness.

These are actual quotes from the book

“The biggest problem of all was the dysfunctional corporate culture in which the mini Lab was being developed. Elizabeth and Sunny regarded anyone who raised a concern or an objection as a cynic and a naysayer.”

“For the dozens of Indians Theranos employed, the fear of being fired was more than just the dread of losing a paycheck. Most were on H-1B visas and dependent on their continued employment at the company to remain in the country. With a despotic boss like Sunny holding their fates in his hands, it was akin to indentured servitude. Sunny, in fact, had the master-servant mentality common among an older generation of Indian businessmen. Employees were his minions. He expected them to be at his disposal at all hours of the day or night and on weekends. He checked the security logs every morning to see when they badged in and out. Every evening, around seven thirty, he made a fly-by of the engineering department to make sure people were still at their desks working.”

With a board of directors including Henry Kissinger, 94 years old, with top venture capitalists on board, with her original Stanford chemistry professor Channing Robertson, receiving a 500,000 dollars check for just being a cover up consultant, General Jim Mattis who became Trump Defense Secretary, few is any contested Elisabeth legitimacy

Elizabeth was a drop-out of Stanford with some hypnotic presence. How come she fascinated most famous people on the Valley, but fall under the influence of her boyfriend Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani? He was twenty years older and a married man when they first met.

"Sunny was a force of nature, and not in a good way. Though only about five foot five and portly, he made up for his diminutive stature with an aggressive, in-your-face management style. His thick eyebrows and almond-shaped eyes, set above a mouth that drooped at the edges and a square chin, projected an air of menace. He was haughty and demeaning toward employees, barking orders and dressing people down"

Epilogue - for now

If you read the LinkedIn as I do, 99% of the people are not entrepreneurs. They just pretend being entrepreneurial when all they want is a job.

So let’s assume although Elizabeth is proven guilty, she gets funded again. Would you refuse to work for her? No! You wouldn’t, despite what happened to Theranos. You will take the job again with both hands and pray this time is Kosher.

And Bad Blood will become a cult book, just like Paul Coelho “The Alchemist” and Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson and the words Fake-until-you-make-it will enter the Bible.

The story of Theranos is a fascinating, cautionary tale. One cannot help but have some measure of sympathy for Ms. Holmes; I truly think she "meant well". Unfortunately, the promises and hype ran laps ahead of the technology. It seemed that no one had the courage to admit that Theranos could not deliver the product it had promised. Anyone contemplating investing in a biomedical start-up should read this book first.

I've known many people, myself included, who at one point or another have used the phrase "{sometimes you have to} fake it till you make it." It's been a cornerstone of the Silicon Valley ethos for decades. Hopefully, this short but extremely robustly told case study on the ethics and optics of where such a philosophy can take you becomes a textbook for a new generation of inventors, visionaries, and dreamers who continue to think big, but demand greater openness and verification before finding themselves led down the dark fantasy of self delusion. This is a story that almost anyone who knows a little bit about the history might feel that they know all the details; rather, I think there's so much that each and every one of us can learn from each chapter. This is not a salacious expose: this is a lesson in the levels of evidence needed at every stage to tell truth from fiction, and how to gather and gut check your instincts at every turn. To tell such a useful lesson in such a densely packed,pageturning manner is testament to Carreyrou and his editorial team.

I finished this in a day! I knew this story was too good to be true and have been fascinated by the demise of Theranos. This is a great read if you’re looking for a mix of business and science to dive into

This book is a real page-turner, and is written like a novel. John Carreyrou must have done a TON of research to get the backstories on all the characters, and reconstruct over a decade of Theranos' history. Even knowing how it ends, the suspense builds at the story approaches the 2015 Wall Street Journal expose.

Sociopath. Harsh words. But in the closing pages of “Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup”, Pulitzer Prize winning author John Carreyrou, suggests Elizabeth Holmes might actually be a sociopath. After reading his book, and watching a few videos of Elizabeth Holmes in action, speaking about Theranos, I don't think she is a sociopath. She is definitely lying, even though the power to believe her is as compelling as her blue eyes, blonde hair, and black Job’sian turtleneck. She was living the Silicon Valley dream of “Fake it till you make it” and giving her the benefit of the doubt, she brought this brand of business ethics mainstream like no other. Is she a lying, sociopathic scam artist? Or is she faking it, till she makes it, Silicon Valley Extreme Makeover Edition style?

Theranos was the quintessential Silicon Valley startup that at one point reached a $9B dollar valuation and her the cover of Forbes magazine. Given all that, it’s hard to believe Carreyrou is telling the truth. Let me say that again. It’s hard to believe a Pulitzer Prize winning author at the Wall Street Journal is telling the truth. Investors, wealthy men, and women, who we all respect, would also find it difficult to believe Carreyrou. Does that sound familiar? The false narrative we all want to believe is true, a disruptive, game changing technology, making health care affordable, taking on the titans of the medical industry is a story we all want to believe. But it all turns out to be a lie. Carreyrou, in fact, has the facts. Yet we still wish it it to be the other way around. We wish that it can be made to be true. If only Holmes had more time. Some investors wanted it to be true so badly they invested $100M of their personal fortunes. Rupert Murdoch the owner of the WSJ for example. How’s that for putting Carreyrou in a pickle? That fact alone might win Carreyrou another Pulitzer. It’s important to note that Carreyrou has reported that Murdoch was approached by Holmes, not once, but twice to put the kibosh on his story. Both times Murdoch trusted his editors to get the story straight and allowed it to go to press. That might be the single most important fact in the mountain duplicity that surrounds this case.

Even though now in hindsight, her behavior seems to defy logic. Her motives, while the facts of this case have been well sourced and recorded, remain as secretive as she the elusive nature of the technology behind the patents with her name on them. As it turns out, literally, one day after I finishing the book, Holmes and her boyfriend were indicted as criminals in a Federal court. It’s possible that over the course of the criminal trial, all of the facts in the case will finally reach the light of day and we will get our answer...maybe. But I still don’t think she is a sociopath.

So, how does, a 19 year old, Stanford dropout, with no biomedical engineering, software, or healthcare experience, raise $700M in venture capital? That is the phenomena that Carreyrou reports in this book. It is a compelling as any business book I have read. And it’s easy to see how it may also top the charts of best business books of the year...or “How Not to Run A Business” book of the year if there were such a category. Thug tactics are not the best way to run a business. But it’s easy to see how she did not run her business like a true Silicon Valley unicorn. She was no Peter Thiel or Elon Musk where the inspiration and perspiration goes into the technology. Her inspiration and perspiration went directly into raising capital and covering up for the non-existent technology until they could invent it. Which again raises the “what if?” question. What if she would have focused on the technology? Could she have invented something, while well short of the Theranos dreamstate, could still be defined as medically useful? I think the answer is no. Gates wrote MS-DOS. Job’s invented the Apple in his garage. Zuckerberg banged out the code for FaceBook in his dorm room. Similarly, Elon Musk banged out the software that would become Paypal. Holmes didn’t like needles. That’s insufficient knowledge to change the world. It’s easy to see that wanting to be like somebody else is also insufficient motivation to change the world. I don’t think she is a sociopath. I do think she believed in her vision, she just didn’t spend enough time in the lab to realize that her vision was an evolution too far. She was chasing a unicorn that didn’t exist and was unwilling to listen to her people simply because she didn’t, and still doesn’t, understand the technology. Unlike other Silicon Valley startups, a few cans of Red Bull and an all night coding session doesn’t change biomedical science.

I’m giving this book 5-stars because it’s a page turner, it’s well written, well researched, and a necessary story about the ethics of a Unicorn start-up. I will deduct 1-star because the term sociopath, as applied to Holmes, seems like a personal attack and an easy out when trying to find the motivation behind her actions. There is a far less complex answer starring Carreyrou in the face which in my mind is an even more damning indictment of Holmes given that she started Theranos. She is not an engineer and simply the worst biomedical scientist ever to run a biomedical company. No one has figured that out yet. But they will. Case closed.

This work deserves a Pulitzer as it exposes a deliberate fraud not seen since Enron. Very well written and hard to put down. The activities that took place behind the secretive Theranos enterprise are laid out for an engaging read. Highly recommend.

John Carreyou's book may have been a little bit premature since this story is far from over (Elizabeth Holmes is trying to raise money for another start-up as I write this,) but it is unquestionably fine writing, well-sourced, with a vivid description of all the foibles of the characters involved.

While I might not call Elizabeth Holmes a sociopath, she is clearly immature, paranoid, and delusional. Silicon Valley likes to make fun of religion, but the author exposes the sick cult that built the Palo Alto cathedrals of excess and deception.

The sick old men of power- Schultz, Mattis, Frist, and the Theranos board- are exposed as drooling fools beguiled by blonde hair, a black turtleneck, and a put-on deep voice.

This is a drama worthy of any gothic novel, where countless high tech suitors throw themselves at the feet of a megalomaniac Scarlett and her secret Rhett. Good times, with indictments and a Hollywood movie to come.

One of the best of my recent reads (well, recent audio books I've listened to!) - very well written, detailed, and exceptional narration. The book has the "flavor of a mystery", yet is an enticing story of greed gone mad. Some of the exploits that are so carefully explained border on unbelievable - but, greed seems to know no bounds, and ruthless ambition takes a front seat in this story. It's sad that so many people got hurt, lost money, and were put in harm's way - for a piece of non-fiction, this reads like a horror novel in some aspects, a business "how-not-to-manage" book in other aspects, and a suspense/mystery novel as well. The fact that it went on as long as it did, and so many "reputable" people invested in it, are the incredulous pieces of the story - congratulations to Carreyrou for sticking to his investigative reporting skills!

The story of medical device manufacturer Theranos holds lessons for health care managers, venture capitalists, and regulators. John Carreyrou has definitely created a well-researched history that is also readable. He is careful, thorough, and (as you will learn from the litigious proclivities of the people around Theranos) courageous in putting out his Wall Street reports and this book. An interesting read in itself, the book is also worth purchasing to support Carreyrou, his paper, and his publisher.

Having written about health IT for many years, I can understand the appeal of Theranos. A common theme in the modern health care field is to draw closer to patients, to offer a simple technology that can help patients get control over crippling medical conditions in collaboration with their doctors, to find cheaper tests and cures--all legitimate goals of progressive health care.

The failure of Theranos, from this book, seems simple enough: they thought they had all the freedom of Silicon Valley software firms to create a new reality, but the basic chemical, clinical, and electrical processes in the biology of human beings put constraints on software and analytics that could not be wished away by Theranos managers. These constraints and conflicts are explained well in Bad Blood.

If you can't understand why Theranos raised so much venture capital and lasted so long, it's worth reading Bad Blood along with Barry Werth's history of early Vertex, The Billion Dollar Molecule. In Werth's book, the company was ultimately successful. But Vertex's hard work took place in a ruthless, cut-throat competitive environment and involved some ethical choices that could make readers uncomfortable. I believe there is a clear line between the machinations of Vertex employees and the unfounded claims made by Theranos, but to outsiders in a particular era, it may be hard to see when a company has violated ethical procedures.

In some cases, the checks and balances of the health care field worked. Health care is not Silicon Valley. Real experimental trials have to be passed in order for health care to accept new technologies. Therefore, well-trained professionals derailed many dangerous Theranos deployments, and government agencies eventually did their job. Even Theranos's claims in its ads were constrained by scrupulous ad writers and lawyers. But along the way, a lot of companies wasted a lot of money, competent professionals wasted a part of their careers, celebrities and new outlets who should have known better tarnished their own reputations, and one employee lost his life. Some less rigorous partners also allowed patients to receive inaccurate tests, so we don't know how many people suffered.

At times, Bad Blood may seem tedious. The same story occurs over and over: a researcher gets inspired and joins the company, then learns of its unethical practices, and eventually is driven out and perhaps sued. But keep reading, for there is an important overarching message here about trust, truth, and human beings' weakness for power.

The story itself is captivating. The execution is well done but drags a bit. It is thorough. Sometimes thorough at the expense of story telling, but I think it makes the book all the more valuable, although less of an enjoyable read. The characters are real which makes it all the more horrifying. How did She get away with it for so long. It’s truly the most fascinating part to me. For 15 years she lived a lie to her employees, investors, patients. I kept waiting for something to indicate “it was all a big misunderstanding” but Holmes comes across cold blooded the whole way through. It’s too bad too, innovation doesn’t happen overnight, the way it seems to in history books. If her time & company had been devoted to really making the innovations she claimed to make rather than lying about hem much could have been accomplished, one nano step at a time.

You should put down whatever book you’re reading right now and go pick up a copy of #BadBlood because it is the best book I’ve read/listened to this year. It boggles my mind how John Carreyrou was able to turn a story about ineffective medical devices into a pulse-pounding, riveting thriller about the rise and fall of one of the most notorious Silicon Valley start-ups in recent history...yet somehow he manages to explain complicated science in layman’s terms and make health care interesting while introducing a multitude of characters...it will shock you and fascinate you and when you’re finished, you will spend 2 hours Googling #theranos because you just can’t get enough(based on personal experience, haha).

This book is captivating. Being a medical technologist who works in a hospital laboratory, I can't fathom the things she was able to do. The depth she would go just to get the funding. The things she was letting her laboratory personnel do and the deceit were unthinkable especially since her company deals with lives. How her company lasted as long as it did was unimaginable. Although, I already know what happened in the end and there were times when she would irritate me, I still can't stop reading the book to the end.

If you want to know about Theranos, a Silicon Valley startup, a company poised to change the medical laboratory world, how it started, rise and fall. This is a very good book that will keep you turning the pages.

Elizabeth Holmes was a young Stanford dropout with a great vision. She is very charismatic and very well connected. She was able to hire great minds from great schools and recruit people from big companies to come work for her. Not only that, she was able to raise funds in the hundreds of millions from reputable investors. She was on her path to become the next Steve Jobs.

People who heard her vision just poured in money after hearing her speeches. She ran her company in deep secrecy and fear. Different departments were not allowed to collaborate. Obviously without teamwork and open communication within the company the goal was not met. If you work in the healthcare laboratory field, you know the vision is just too good to be true. But she was a great speaker who made people believe her even without visible reliable proof of anything.

Big kudos to the writer/journalist John Carreyrou and those who helped him get the truth out. Carreyrou did not waver and relentlessly pursue his investigation into the company against all the charming tactics, threats and lawyers Elizabeth Holmes sent his way.

A page turning business thriller! I listened to the book on Audible and couldn't stop listening. It would make a great gift for any business major or any young person starting his or her first corporate job. If you liked to read the books about the fall and fraud of Enron or the Madoff scandal or the many good books about the 2008 financial crisis, then you will love this book. First, you can't believe so many smart people did not do their due diligence before giving Elizabeth Holmes thousands or millions of dollars. Just because a CEO says something is true isn't due diligence. Second, Theranos was a true cult of personality like the Madoff scandal. It shares many parallels. Third, I hope that many young people learn the lesson that I learned early on: just because someone has 20 years of business experience and the title of SVP doesn't mean they actually know what they are doing sometimes. If you think you are right about something in challenging that person, you likely are!! If you recognize that a person is ethically challenged, leave the company or the department, or otherwise you will become ensnared in the web of lies and possibly ruin your own career. Lastly, I am so grateful to the American investigative press for the role that they play in our country. Also, I think that Tyler Shultz's parents should be very proud of their son, and I hope that grandpa realizes what an extraordinary grandson he has. Thank you all you courageous sources for helping John Carreyrou get the truth out.

At times a bit tedious. At other times it’s a barn burner of a story.

I admire Mr. Carreyou for having the courage and persistence to overcome the obstacles thrown in his way by Elizabeth Holmes.

For me this story shows how easily a succession of brilliant scientists, professors, and politicians were mesmerized, dazzled, and bamboozled by a gorgeous narcissist. Do you think they all would have followed her off the cliff if she’d looked like Eleanor Roosevelt?

The author was careful to simply state the facts and not to speculate about any of this. We owe Tyler Schulz and Erica Cheung our thanks for helping to avert a horrible tragedy.

This is a very good, superbly reported read ... and an unexpectedly frightening one. From previous reading, my image of Elizabeth Holmes was that of a misguided idealist who made some errors, but was probably good at heart and well-intentioned. This book completely disabused me of that belief. Holmes comes across as a pathological liar, willing to stop at seemingly nothing to accomplish her goals. Walter White of Breaking Bad seems like a pale version of her.

I admit to more than just a little schadenfreude when I read of the many bigwigs who Holmes turned into complete idiots and enticed on to her Board. But beyond that, what is incredibly frightening is how she was able to marshal the immense power of America's legal system to pursue those who dared call BS on her fraud by threatening to ruin their lives, their families and their livelihoods without the slightest compunction.

Holmes has been charged with criminal acts and faces jail time. One hopes that she goes away for a long, long time. It is very likely that the completely unsympathetic Ramesh Balwani will go to jail too. They will both richly deserve it. The third villain who comes through as little more than a Mafioso in legal robes is David Boies. In a just world, he too should be tossed in jail for being the willing henchman of Holmes & Balwani, using his legal prowess to browbeat, threaten and intimidate all those who would have exposed this ugly fraud. It is a pity that he won't go to jail or even be charged for his actions. But one can hope that his reputation is tarnished forever (his Prop 8 victory nothwithstanding).

Holy cow, this story is simply stunning! The chutzpah of Elizabeth Holmes, the inability of so many smart people to see through her fraud! Her board of directors was probably the most prestigious collection of men in the history of boards, and yet she managed to lie and deceive and bamboozle them for years! How could a 19-year-old college dropout convince so many venture capitalists to pour money into an idea that had no possibility of being realistic?

The book is well-written, understandable, and well-sourced.

But it's the story itself that simply stuns. I almost feel that this young woman was able to literally hypnotize people into believing her lies. Was it because *she* believed them, that she could make other people believe them as well.

This story is worse than Bernie Madoff. He merely fooled people about their money and investments. This woman did that, PLUS she gambled with people's health in the process.

At this point in time (October 2018), I am losing faith in the rationality of humans! People can believe ANYTHING, if they want to badly enough!

A completely griping tale of how Elizabeth was able to "fake it" to the very end to try to make it in Sillicon Valley at any cost. Including potentially harming people in the process. Doctors count on blood tests to determine how to treat patients and with her fake tests, she produced false results causing harm to people. She was undeterred at what consequences there were. She continued to lie and lie big in front of hundreds of people. She was what is thought of as a sociopath since she was never remorseful for what she had done.

She believed herself to be a disrupt-er but you can not make things up in health care. There is a reason there is an FDA to prevent fraudsters like this company. Thank goodness there are people with a moral compass that worked in her company and saw her schemes first hand. A riveting read and a cautionary tale for anyone who believes in hypes. They are smoke and mirrors until proven otherwise. A lot of smart and intelligent people fell for her deception because they wanted to believe the impossible. Similar to believing in a time machine. If it's too good to be true, it probably is

I enjoy reading financially-oriented non-fiction and Carreyrou's book is one of the best I have ever read. It evidences a tremendous amount of hard work, interviewing, good old-fashioned shoe-leather-on-the-ground investigative reporting, you know, the kind we used to have before the internet reduced out attention span to seconds. He gets it right on Ms. Holmes and Mr. Balwani. My daughter is a lab tech doing blood testing and she said the "pin prick" device Theranos was touting should have been immediately recognizable as a fraud, you can't reliably test with such a small sample. It appears no one did their due diligence. Some big names come off very badly, i.e., George Schultz, Kissinger and Jim Mattis, our current Secretary of Defense, who said Holmes was about the most ethical person he'd ever met! Ouch!
This is probably the best book of this genre since Bethany McLean's "The Smartest Guys in the Room," on Enron. By the way, I'm hoping that Ms. McLean will turn her Vanity Fair article on Valiant Pharmaceuticals into another great book, that's another great story that needs to be told, again a situation with many red flags waving in the wind, which some of us saw well before the debacle.

At the end of his fascinating and fast-paced book John Carreyrou wonders whether Elizabeth Holmes might be a sociopath. Wisely, he does not venture an answer. Nor will I. Like Carreyrou, I’m not a psychiatrist. But that puzzle remains unsolved in my mind, if only because, for years, Holmes beguiled and bamboozled a battalion of luminaries: mega-rich venture capitalists, renowned diplomats (George Shultz and Henry Kissinger), seasoned journalists (among them Fareed Zakaria and a staff writer for the New Yorker), fearsome trial lawyers (David Boeis), and battle-hardened generals (James Mattis). More fascinating than the details of Holmes’s serial shenanigans is the question of how so many smart, experienced people could have been fooled by a twenty-something Stanford dropout with wafer-thin credentials in medical technology and hematology, the fields most closely related to the ponzi-game-based company (Theranos) that she created and ran for several years. The book does not provide the answer, but Carreyrou, who has written a superbly crafted, riveting account, can scarcely be blamed for that: we may never know. (Indeed even Holmes may not.) Many of those whom she duped may now be asking themselves the same question. If not, they certainly should be.

Wow...well done John!
This is just a great piece of writing and journalism!
Miss Holmes may have started out with an altruistic mindset, but that obviously and quickly turned into an incredible disaster and Bernie M.-like major Silicon Valley bamboozle!
What on earth happened to everyone’s judgement? 19 years old, not a shred of experience or education in the medical field and people laid out millions because ...? Wells Fargo would’ve turned her down for a payday loan people!
She’s scary looking...John, this could possibly be written for TV as a new Carl Kolchak Nightstalker episode...could be fun.

Seriously, excellent!

Loved the book and the story telling. There are hundreds of reviews here that go into details of Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes, I will avoid rehashing it here. But, there's always something to learn from every story. Here are my key lessons from the book:

1. Salesmanship is a highly underrated skill. A 19-year old college dropout with minimal science background was able to con investors, media and corporations out of hundreds of millions of dollars. All by being a great salesman!

2. Ethics matter in all walks of life. Lies, deceit and cutting the corners will eventually catch up with you. Karma is a bit*h!

3. Rich are, almost always, not the smartest people around. Your skills, expertise and fame from an industry don't translate automatically to other walks of life.

4. Wisdom is hard to find. One has to work for it continuously.

5. Luck plays a HUGE role in your success. Always be humble.

Bad Blood tells the story of one of the most amazing con jobs in modern times. Elizabeth Holmes, a 19 year-old Stanford dropout started a Silicon valley company called Theranos. She was named the first female self-made billionaire after raising $8 billions dollars for Theranos. Elizabeth had no health, technology, or science background, and yet she promised the world she could do hundreds of lab tests from just a pin-prick of blood using an amazing new medical device her company created. She was advised by Larry Ellison, famed co-founder of Oracle. Her board members included super powerful people like former Secretaries of State, Charles Schultz and Henry Kissinger, Senator Sam Nunn, Senator Bill First, and general Jim Mattis, our current Secretary of Defense! She idolized Steve Jobs, so she dressed in black turtle necks like he did. She named one of her devices the 4S, after what was then the most current version of the iPhone.
The problem was, her devices were fake! And so was her strangely low voice! And yet this mesmerizing young lady (she was said to stare unblinkingly for long periods of time at whomever she was speaking) managed to sign partnership agreements with both Safeway and Walgreens to create mini-labs in their stores. None of her medical devices had approval from any regulatory body to conduct tests on human beings. Safeway and Walgreens were so eager to offer this new technology they did not do any proper vetting of Elizabeth or her devices. Walgreens customers in California and Arizona were human guinea pigs who were subjected to repeat lab testing and even trips to the ER when their Theranos test results were alarming for revealing potentially life-threatening conditions. Once the lab tests were repeated by other laboratories, however; the repeat lab tests showed none of the abnormalities were real.
This whole sham would likely be continuing to this day were it not for Wall Street journalist John Carreyrou receiving a tip from a pathologist that Theranos was a sham. He tracked down and worked closely with former Theranos employees to get the inside story. It was Carreyrou’s October 2015 article in the Wall Street Journal that started the eventual implosion of Theranos. On August 31, 2018 Theranos finally ceased their operations. In June 2018 Holmes was indicted on criminal charges in San Francisco. It will be interesting to see the outcome of the indictment.

Wow, this one was great. No matter what kind of books you like to read, this one is worth picking up. Fascinating tale of Theranos and the CEO and Founder, Elizabeth Holmes. This shouldn't be a spoiler because it is all over the news, but Theranos is in a lot of trouble right now. There is a good chance that multiple people will be going to prison. How did a healthcare startup fool so many people? How did someone who had been knighted by Silicon Valley as the next Steve Jobs fail so spectacularly? This is not a simple tale of deceit - some of the smartest people in America were fooled and dragged into this scheme that ended up hurting a lot of people. This story is still unfolding and the book is written by the reporter who helped bring it all to light. Excellent, highly recommended.

Couldn't put this book down. Amazing. Literally, from the first page to the last, this story is told so well and with such clarity and organization - it's amazing that this happened. It does help that I am a pathologist (of which there are too few in this whole story, which probably contributed to the lies/failures of the company!) but you certainly don't need to be one to understand the concepts.

One critique, and minor, is that there are so many people in the book - some of whom are transient, (often due to the high turnover of employees!) is that it can be hard to keep up. Some physical details or background might have helped cement a few characters throughout the tale, but this is done well with the majority of the major players. Awesome book overall.

A painless single drop of blood to get hundreds of different tests for just a few dollars with results delivered in minutes at your local Walgreens, what’s not to like? Unfortunately this was an ongoing fraud lead by a sociopath (Elizabeth Holmes). During the short lived Walgreens-Theranos joint venture, they offered 240 blood tests. 160 were done with regular venous draw. Another 70 were done with a single drop. But, they went through a blood dilution protocol to be analyzed by a traditional blood analyzer from Siemens. Finally, there were only 10 true Theranos blood tests where they used a single drop of blood and Theranos technology to analyze it. Out of 240 tests offered, the 160 venous draw traditional tests worked just fine. All the others were alarmingly inaccurate.

The narrative has a lot of politics, litigations, and manipulation. The tension within the Schultz family is intense, including between the 94 year old George Schultz, former Secretary of State, and his grandson Tyler, a leading Theranos whistleblower. And, Tyler is the winner within this morality tale. On other counts, Elizabeth Holmes ability to raise funds is impressive. She will get Robert Murdoch to invest $125 million in Theranos. Later, she will attempt to have Murdoch block the author from releasing his articles within the Wall Street Journal so as to protect his investment in Theranos. To his credit, Murdoch (owner of the WSJ) does not budge and protects the WSJ independence. And, he magnanimously loses his entire investment. Eventually, Theranos will waste $900 million in investors’ funds mainly on lawsuits.

There is another side to the story. In March 2016, a formal study was completed and published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation benchmarking numerous Theranos blood test results against LabCorp and QuestDiagnostics, the two leaders in blood testing. And, on most counts Theranos test results came up surprisingly close to the leaders (cholesterol panel came up a bit too low; other tests were very close). The study was undertaken by 13 independent scientists coming from leading institutions with no affiliation with Theranos and no economic conflict of interest. The study does not specifically mention if Theranos participated at all in the study. But, it discloses that Theranos finger prick were collected and processed on sites before shipping the blood to a central Theranos facility in Newark, California for testing.

The study testing was conducted in mid July 2015. In January 2016, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the main lab regulator, announces that Theranos tests were faulty and not approved. And, in July 2016 CMS formally revokes Theranos license to run such tests and bans Elizabeth Holmes from running a lab operation. The Newark lab is soon closed down. So, the authors of the study should have been aware of CMS first troubling announcement in January 2016. Yet, they complete and release their study in March 2016. They even make a small correction to it (related to the original date in 2015) and confirm their results in July 2016. The study contradicts everything in the book and in the CMS findings. What gives?

I welcome well supported insights from anyone who can resolve this conundrum.

4.5 Stars

Elizabeth told the gathered employees that she was building a religion. If there were any among them who didn’t believe, they should leave.

Wow! What a powerful story. I'm a fan of financial stories and I personally work in the tech industry so when I heard about this book I knew I had to read it. If you like shows like Shark Tank, I think you will find this story interesting.

Elizabeth Holmes is 19 and an incredibly smart girl. She decides to dropout of Stanford because she has an idea for a medical device that could literally change the entire medical industry. The device is supposed to eliminate drawing blood through a large needle and instead simply prick your finger and get results faster. She becomes romantically involved with a guy 20 years her senior named Sunny who becomes a powerhouse at the company. They name the company Theranos. Elisabeth is called the next Steve Jobs. Her company goes and eventually is valued at 9 Billion dollars and she becomes the most valuable female CEO ever. Walgreens and Safeway buy into the idea and invest millions. Other famous names invest as well such as, Rupert Murdoch.

This all sounds good and well right? Well what if you worked at a company and found out the entire product was a lie and didn't actually work? What if you realized that the company you are working for made a product that can potentially kill people because the company is faking results and putting innocent lives at risk? Would you quit or say something? If you quit you get harassed & sued (you have to sign an NDA) if you speak a word. If you speak up you immediately get fired and harassed. Let's just say the grass isn't always greener. One day the lies start to come out from a WSJ article when ex-Theranos employees start to speak anonymously...

But how could this woman continue to keep this lie going for over 10 years?

This story honestly blew me away. I have no idea how large companies such as Walgreens and Safeway were able to not see through the lies. Maybe Elizabeth was an amazing negotiator but if I invested hundreds of millions of dollars and the product wasn't hitting timelines I would end that ASAP. I think that the companies had FOMO (fear of missing out), at least Walgreens did. They were afraid of CVS getting the business instead, only to be duped.

The author, who is also the WSJ journalist who broke this story, calls Elizabeth a sociopath. He says they are defined by: not having a conscience in regards to actions they've taken. I'm not sure I would have pegged her as that but when you think about it, she literally could have killed people if doctors actually believe this medical device worked. Luckily, the WSJ article broke before it became a real problem. But morally how can someone do that? Oh and if you look Elizabeth up online she's already starting to try to get people to invest in a new business idea she has. I guess she's moved on...

This story was so interesting and I highly recommend for those who enjoy good business scandals/investment stories. It was a wild ride and I also learned a lot about blood science! This definitely lives up to the hype.

This riveting journalistic triumph details the fraud which “was” Theranos and its media besotted darling owner, Elizabeth Holmes, and, the courage of a few company lab technicians and professionals who took the Hippocrates Oath to heart and came forth, acting upon it. This 400 page “can’t put down” expose’ is also a searing indictment of Theranos’ docile “see no evil” board of directors, “poobahs” of American political leadership, the most prominent being, George Shultz, and America’s complicit media which eagerly elevate the wholly ruthless Ms. Holmes to Steve Jobs-ian deification. The author comprehensively tracks the scam, makes readable and understandable the medical complexities of blood and, in doing so, writes with a commendable accusatory brio.

This is a masterpiece of investigative reporting of the blood testing firm Theranos. Its founder Elizabeth Holmes managed to hoodwink the elite of Silicon Valley and the establishment with board members George Schultz, Henry Kissinger, General James Mattis and investors like Rupert Murdock, Larry Ellison, et al. At the time the book was published it was unclear whether she would be prosecuted but in June, she and her boyfriend/President were indicted for wire fraud. Look for a consent decree. The book lagged a bit in the middle with repeated revelations about disgruntled employees but became breathless drama when the author published his expose in the WSJ and all out war was declared. One character in the drama, Tyler Schultz, George’s grandson, forced his parents to spend $400,000 in legal fees to protect his whistleblowing. This is an example of how deep pocket companies can literally bankrupt you when they turn their legal guns on you. Very intimidating.

It was interesting to see Holmes on You Tube calmly lying to reporters. The woman has a preternatural ability to remain calm and focused and likable under the most stressful circumstances.

I like many other reviewers couldn't put this book down once I started, Finished in 2-days but even when I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about it. I first remember reading her story in the Saturday Edition of the WSJ Weekend Interview, which is really a Saturday morning puff piece. However, when the story first broke as a front page news story, it was riveting. I mean, who doesn't like a good story about a newly minted unicorn. Except, this was a big fraudulent scheme of hubris, bullying and technological nothingness. In other words, what may have started out as something sincere, was just another con.

Unbridled greed after sex, has bought down many a man. Holmes and her bully-boy, boyfriend Sunny used said greed and the promise of greed to threaten and threaten and threaten employees and associates alike. One thing I wish the story would explain; Elizabeth met Sunny during a trip to China after befriended her because she was being bullied. She was a Stanford sophomore on a China Fellowship?

Elizabeth and Sunny became involved in an unbelievable fraud, but what about the board that included George Shultz, Jim Mattis, David Boise and Henry Kissinger (who gets a pass because of his age). It was nothing more than a prestige board, like most boards except these were very accomplished men.

On the other hand, Charlotte Shultz was a real heroine defending their grandson Tyler who had the balls to stand up and push back against the fraud after he realized it after 7 months on the job. Along with Erika Cheung, a Chinese immigrant, Ian a British scientist who eventually committed suicide but his wife had the courage to tell the story despite the threats; Gary Yamahoto from CMS, FDA and LTC Shoemaker US Army both withstanding the pressure from various civilian and military leaders. They were having people followed, spied on them and threatening them and their families. It costs these people untold mental anguish and financial costs.

The Obama administration doesn't get off lightly despite the work of the federal government (prodded by the state of NY). They gave this cover girl entrée and feted her at the White House on more than one occasion. And VP Biden who visited the Theranos Potemkin facility comes off as a real dufus.

This entire scheme couldn't have happened without the 'follow the heard mentality' of the news media, Its shameful fawning and lack of due diligence is why so many millions of Americans think of it as # FakeNews now. Couldn't agree more.

I like to listen to books during my commute. I'd of course heard of Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes in the news over the past few years but didn't follow it closely. The book seemed like a good opportunity to learn more. Last night stuck in traffic I randomly selected it from several books I hadn't started yet. It grabbed me from the beginning. Once I got home, I listened until midnight and was sorely tempted to listen to the last two hours. I finally went to sleep but started it up again first thing and was done with it before I got to work this morning.

Bad Blood is a fascinating tale of a sociopath who knew from a young age she wanted to be a billionaire (she didn't want to be President, Presidents would want to marry her because she was rich) and was relentless and ruthless in making it happen, starting before she was 20. From the beginning, she never had a working product but spent over a decade lying and tyrannically shutting down anyone who ever questioned anything. So many people were aware of issues with their piece of the pie but the company punished and "disappeared" anyone who talked to people in other silos of the company. The level of surveillance and compartmentalization of the company would seem like overkill for the CIA. Over and over small groups would more or less stumble into each other and get to talking and realize how rotten the whole thing was. A courageous few were willing at great cost to themselves to talk to outside regulators and the book's author to make the world aware of the farce and the harm it was doing to real, live patients.

Meanwhile, some of the most powerful and savvy political and economic powerhouses of the last century were seduced so easily by Elizabeth, her big blue eyes and her lies. Some to this day defend her even though she pathologically lied to them and everyone else for a decade and burned through untold millions of dollars. The epic faith they had in her and their inability to accept facts that didn't add up let her get rid of any employee or board member that started to lose their rose-colored glasses and start asking questions. She played them like a fiddle and they couldn't get enough of her.

You have to read it to believe it and even then you'll be stunned at what she managed to do via fear, intimidation, charisma, and those sociopathic tendencies that let her lie to anyone anytime and double-down as many times as needed.

In my legal career I knew a lawyer who pulled off, for a while anyway, a one billion four hundred thousand dollar Ponzi scheme. Associated with his operation was both excessive secrecy and endless self promotion, two seemingly antagonistic activities that furnished the fuel for the scam.

Elizabeth Holmes, an attractive brilliant twenty-something Stanford dropout, consumed by ambition to have the things billionaires have, founded a company Theranos whose vision was to use a single finger stick to draw a drop of blood which could run thousands of lab tests almost instantaneously and run the big boys, Quest and Labcorp out of business. She sold her vision to Walgreens, Safeco, investment bankers, hedge funds, former cabinet members, and business publications like the Wall Street Journal over most of her company’s fifteen year run.

The irony is that one Journal reporter John Carreyrou drawn to hype as a result of a pitch from Theranos law firm found more questions than answers when he went to write what was otherwise likely to be another puff piece for Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes.

Carreyrou’s reporting exposed the Empress’s new clothes, styled after Steve Jobs, for its naked greed and deceit. As. Carreyrou posits, a scam based on a health related device which is intended to be used by an unsuspecting public is by definition dangerous and a threat to health as a result of misdiagnosis.

In short, this is a thorough and balanced takedown of a dangerous enterprise by a reporter determined to find the truth, no matter what obstacles are thrown in his way.

The first Theranos story I read was John Correyrou's article about Tyler Schultz in WSJ back in 2016. It read like a movie script for a thriller. I even commented at that time that Jennifer Lawrence could play Elizabeth Holmes. I just had to buy the book. I brought it on my recent vacation. Some sections of the first 2/3 of the book were hard to read because I just couldn't believe the audacity of Holmes's lies and how she got away with them. Once the writer entered the picture at about the last 1/3 point, the book turned into a journalistic thriller on the level of "All the President's Men". I couldn't put it down and read it through the night. It's a good thing I was on vacation!

The research for the book was impeccable and the structure of the book was very good. However, I feel the end was rushed. In an interview, Correyrou said the release date was moved up after the SEC settlement. Maybe that's why it feels rushed at the end. The writer needs to extend the ending and add updates for the next edition. Also, the writer tried too hard to stay "neutral". For example, he consistently downplayed the possibility that he's followed by PIs. If people he met heard from Theranos's lawyers immediately after meeting him, it means he's followed. There's no ifs or buts about it. John, you're allowed to stretch out the dramatic points a bit or not be neutral for a change.

Overall, investigative journalism at its best. John Correyrou, take a bow. You deserve another Pulitzer. I'm glad I subscribe WSJ and I'll keep my eyes out for the movie.

This book is awesome - I feel like I didn't fully understand the fraud behind Theranos before reading this book, despite being immersed in media and reading a lot of coverage of the company and its downfall, and I think the reason is that blood testing is hard to understand, and it's easy for companies like Theranos to mount very effective PR campaigns against negative coverage when the underlying science is difficult for lay people such as myself to comprehend. But what John Carreyrou does in this book is masterful - you finish the book aghast at the ability of Elizabeth Holmes to sucker as many serious people for as long as she did, and as effectively as she did. And the science is made so clear and understandable. For journalism buffs the book is a wonderful story about the importance of perseverance and tenacity in keeping after a big scoop even when it seems like the odds might be against you. The author and his publication were threatened by some of the most powerful and feared lawyers in the country but this book should be required reading for journalism classes because the stories were ultimately published and followed up and they made a lasting difference. The scale of the fraud uncovered here is remarkable, and there aren't enough good things I can say about this book except Buy It!

DISCLAIMER: I borrowed the book from the local public library.

As someone who's interested in investments - and how they can be brilliant or horrible - I found this book to be an absolute page-turner.
Ms. Holmes vision from childhood was to become a billionaire, but her parents must have strongly influenced her in that direction.

Absolutely fascinating how many investors, young and old, were charmed out of their money by a sweet-talking, pretty face. Her boyfriend was nothing more than a rich, thuggish bully, whom she jettisoned when things got rough. What an unsavory character he is !

Sad to see older men, such as George Schultz, Rupert Murdoch, and Mr. Burd, taken in by all her noxious palaver. It calls to mind the saying, "There's no fool like an old fool.". Too bad for them. How very odd, also, that nonagenarian Schultz took to communicating via lawyers with his grandson Tyler. The grandson had a much better view of the situation.

As a small-time investor, I've read - and re-read several more times - the classic investment books "Security Analysis" (by Graham & Dodd) and "The Intelligent Investor" (by Graham alone). Their absolute insistence on looking over a company's numeric data (quantitative factors) as well as its subjective side (qualitative factors) was intended to guard investors. The fact that Theranos was privately held and no IPO appeared to be on the horizon, meant that there was a dearth of published financial data. Little or no governance of financial data by the SEC, either.

A well-written book by Mr. Carreyrou. Definitely worth reading !

This book was fascinating. It is a great example of fact is definitely stranger than fiction and real crooks are more interesting than fictional ones. I had never heard of Theranos previously, but this book was recommended by various reading blogs. It was amazing that Theranos was able to get $900 million in funding before actually producing a successful and dependable medical device. People, particularly men, were fascinated by Elizabeth Holmes. She wasn't an entrepreneur or role model for young women, but a femme fatale. She could have led to the death of thousands of people with faulty blood tests.

This is a deftly written, meticulously laid out account of the Theranos debacle. It begin with a succinct but telling account of founder Elizabeth Holmes' childhood in which she outlines her goal to be "a billionaire", to developing a tantalizing but unrealistic startup idea to obtain a myriad of test results from a few drops of blood obtained by fingerstick testing. The idea and the narrative were so tempting that many were mesmerized by the concept despite the lack of proof of feasibility. What happens next is a distortion of the company's purported aims and the sacrifice of that mission in order to maintain a facade of a technology that wasn't really ready for clinical use. Carreyrou sharply illustrates the secrecy and misconstructions that the company used to evade and mislead regulators, investors, and most importantly the patients and clinicians who placed their trust in the lab. One critique is that the ending seemed a bit abrupt, compared to the very detailed build-up, but this is likely because a lot of the events are still ongoing. This is an excellent piece of investigative journalism.

This books describes the rise and fall of a deceiver, and the willingness of powerful people, many of whom were financially invested, in propagating the lies of a too-good-to-be-true Silicon startup. The terrifying part is that the company came very close to hurting the physical well-being of consumers through shoddy medical testing that was almost allowed to operate out of Safeway grocery stores and neighborhood Walgreens stores. Thank goodness for a free and strong press, that kept digging in spite of legal threats and cries of “fake news” from Elizabeth Holmes and her enablers.

Thank you for writing this! It took me a while to gain some momentum, but then, I was hooked.
It also helped me to understand the current administration. How do you get away with lying?
1. Fire people (or they resign) as they see the truth. Churn personnel.
2. Threaten them after they leave.
3. Find people who "want" or "need" to believe. For Holmes, it was Safeway, etc., who wanted to rekindle their growth, and would look beyond warning signs.
4. Create personal, not institutional, relationships.
5. Hire lawyers. Boies comes across as poorly as anyone in this book, in my opinion.
6. Have a story line people want. For Homes, it was "female" and "Silicon Valley does more than apps, it saves lives."

I must also admit: Rupert Murdoch comes across as near saintly. He's willing to write off $125 million (and some of his pride, I suspect) to completely allow the WSJ to report the story.

The author goes step by step through how Theranos was started, how the founder raised over a billion dollars and got prominent people to serve on the board, despite having only an idea and one year of college. The people who were part of this are described very well so that their hopes, fears, ethical struggles and character failings are understandable. And the author does an excellent job explaining how it fell apart, step by step, because a few people (employees and journalists) were brave enough to challenge the senior management and the board of directors.

A great Silicon Valley soap opera, incredibly researched. Theranos and was trying to change the world with a device that could literally perform hundreds of tests with on drop of blood. It wasn't working. You do not cut corners when developing a product that could mean life and death for individuals that take actions that could affect (sic) their lives based on the product results. Yet this was done for years. Unhappy employee? Fire them; remind them that they are under an NDA and that they will be sued if they speak with anyone. It is disappointing that this “smoke and mirrors” organization wasn’t outed earlier. It’s disappointing that regulatory agencies weren’t more aggressive in their oversight. However, the machinations Theranos made to mask the fact that “all was not good” was incredible. The dream was good. Actions taken when the dream wasn't being realized, unethical at best. You'll have to read the book!

As part of the settlement, Theranos and Holmes should be required to provide a copy of Bad Blood to any VC firms, major investors, and companies they want to sign partnerships with, for the next 5 or 10 years.

Carreyrou did great work with his research for the book and the Wall Street Journal. His demonstrated that “the empress had no clothes”. Well, basic black tops, slacks, etc. Overpromising is par for the course in Silicon Valley. For a medical device? Unforgivable.

A must read. I’ll have to chide the Stanford professor mentioned in the book next time I see him. (I took courses from him). He’s probably still under an NDA, though!

This book is a real page turner...

This fraud is the high tech equivalent of the great Bre-X gold fraud of the mid to late 90's. What impressed me most is the author's ability throughout the book to clearly explain, in layman's terms, the complex and arcane science involved in blood testing. This is a testament to his extensive research into this field.

We need more people like John Carreyrou to expose scams like this. This isn't the first, nor will it be the last, fraud scheme. The sooner these con artists are exposed by relentless investigative journalists like Carryrou, the better for all of us.

Had Theranos not been exposed and stopped in its tracks when it was, thousands of lives could have been lost due to bogus blood tests giving "false positive" results to doctors who rely on these tests to provide patients with appropriate treatments / medications for many potentially life-threatening illnesses.

Great book. Difficult to navigate at first - many different players and complexity. The last 3rd of the book is a complete page-turner. Amazing to see the depth of lies and the desire to believe that a 22 year old drop out could create world changing medical technology. It certainly shows the naivete' of the VC community when it comes to evaluating investments. Makes you wonder how many other Theranos-like companies are out there... and the depiction of Elizabeth Holmes conjures up Faye Dunaway in Mommy Dearest.

Read this cover to cover in a day. Absolutely fascinating and riveting. Having worked in Silicon Valley for 35+ years I am not surprised by any of it - the passion, the hype, the deceit, the vanity, the greed, and the willingness of the smartest people on the Planet to subject themselves to a toxic and demeaning culture led by power hungry attention seeking sociopaths. There are many stories just like this one that will never be written about. Excellent journalism - a must read.

What a story! Couldn't put the book down. Please read/buy the book if just to support the author for his determination to report this story. Back then Steve Job had just passed away, so much money flew into the valley for all kinds of startups. It's understandable that it needs a hero, especially a female one, all that gave Holmes a fast ride to stardom. I remembered I watched her TED talk and thought how do you do it? all kinds of blood tests with just one drop of blood? Shouldn't you won a Nobel prize already? What magic did you find to defy nature? So came Oct 2015 WSJ article I wasn't surprised( I bet like so many of us not buying her story at that time).
What surprised/amazed me is there's more to the story, now Carreyrou dug in even more to expose how from the beginning she had lied and lied, that anyone questioned her in the company got fired, how she focus on the PR, the look of the machine, her own image, even the website design, the crazy security details when she should just get the thing to work! (I guess it's hard when there wasn't any innovation/technology to begin with). If you like me, thought Therano is just a over promising, 2000-era tech bubble thing, it's not. Holmes and Sunny are criminals! Read the book!

If any one doubts the importance of newspaper in our society, please read this book. The commitment of the Wall Street Journal to allow reporter Carreyrou to pursue the story was unwavering in the face of a brutal Theranos counterattack. This is a chilling tale of deception on Wall Street featuring one of the world's worst bosses. One surprising hero of the book: Rupert Murdoch. He could have killed the Journal's story thereby saving him millions of dollars in his investment in Theranos but he stood by his paper. Wow. Two problems with book. The most intriguing part of the book is the relationship of Theranos board member George Schultz (yes, that George Schultz) and his whistle-blowing grandson who worked for Theranos. That should be the key in the movie that's being made (hello HBO!). There's too much focus on the science and not enough on that relationship. Also: the book is riddle with an abundance of cliches. Where was the editor?

Excellent book. Really. What others in their reviews call a page turner (I, too, couldn't put it down). It's not only a 'crime thriller;' it's a good look at a huckster (however good her intentions when she started out) and the nasty, threatening, and paranoid corporate culture she created. I laud all those ex-employees with the bravery to speak out; it took lots of courage in the face of threats and lawsuits. And it took courage to investigate, collect evidence, and then write this story. Anyway, a great (if awful) story well told! Reporters like Carreyrou make a difference. Viva the first amendment!

Read the book in 2 evenings. I couldn’t put it down. A real ‘page turner’ that is surreal. I live in Silicon Valley and hear about many crazy companies that make billions for people. Such smart people involved and they were so ‘hoodwinked’. Scary that warning signals but their legal shenanigans quieted people. Sad that the Board and other Executives never investigated before losing $1B investment.

Read this book. Even if not in high-tech or biomedicine you’ll find it a great read!!

The story of Theranos is a fascinating, cautionary tale. One cannot help but have some measure of sympathy for Ms. Holmes; I truly think she "meant well". Unfortunately, the promises and hype ran laps ahead of the technology. It seemed that no one had the courage to admit that Theranos could not deliver the product it had promised. Anyone contemplating investing in a biomedical start-up should read this book first.

I've known many people, myself included, who at one point or another have used the phrase "{sometimes you have to} fake it till you make it." It's been a cornerstone of the Silicon Valley ethos for decades. Hopefully, this short but extremely robustly told case study on the ethics and optics of where such a philosophy can take you becomes a textbook for a new generation of inventors, visionaries, and dreamers who continue to think big, but demand greater openness and verification before finding themselves led down the dark fantasy of self delusion. This is a story that almost anyone who knows a little bit about the history might feel that they know all the details; rather, I think there's so much that each and every one of us can learn from each chapter. This is not a salacious expose: this is a lesson in the levels of evidence needed at every stage to tell truth from fiction, and how to gather and gut check your instincts at every turn. To tell such a useful lesson in such a densely packed,pageturning manner is testament to Carreyrou and his editorial team.

I finished this in a day! I knew this story was too good to be true and have been fascinated by the demise of Theranos. This is a great read if you’re looking for a mix of business and science to dive into

This book is a real page-turner, and is written like a novel. John Carreyrou must have done a TON of research to get the backstories on all the characters, and reconstruct over a decade of Theranos' history. Even knowing how it ends, the suspense builds at the story approaches the 2015 Wall Street Journal expose.

An engrossing, extremely well-researched book, clearly and effectively presented.

While it's sometimes frustrating that Mr. Carreyrou was unable - for obvious reasons - to interview Elizabeth Holmes and gather her own recollections of the events recounted here, one finishes 'Bad Blood' with a comprehensive understanding of the whole deception - and a reasonable understanding of this woman whose not so well-laid plans came crashing down to nothing.

Incidentally and personally, I was struck repeatedly by all the ways Elizabeth Holmes resembles - of all people - Donald Trump. It isn't merely that both seem to possess an unparalleled narcissism but even more, that both were/are able to easily spout a revolving litany of lies in furtherance of their own self-interest with no regard for ultimate consequence. Both made/make demands of loyalty central to people's employment - and then dispose of these underlings once they're no longer of use. (The length of the list of those fired at Theranos is only rivaled by the number of people tossed out of the Trump administration during its first year and a half.) Both managed - for a while at least - to convince countless people who should have known better that they possessed expertise which clearly they did and do not.

Anyway - :) - stunning, tremendously entertaining and enlightening account of this massive debacle.

An incredible story of some of the worst people you will ever meet working together to perpetuate a massive fraud that put many, many lives at risk. This is a terrific book and likely to be on many "Ten Best" lists at the end of 2018. Carreyrou, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, tells the whole sordid story of how he almost singlehandedly brought down Theranos. And perhaps no company, ever, deserved to be brought down more, including Enron, where at least the fraud was only financial and didn't have the potential to kill people.

And what a cast of characters, starting with Elizabeth Holmes, part visionary, part conman and ALL sociopath. Once (ridiculously) lauded as "the next Steve Jobs" she is clearly a person totally lacking in fundamental human decency, empathy or concern for human lives. Think that sounds harsh? You won't after reading this book. Next is Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani, the Theranos COO, Holmes' boyfriend and, mostly disturbingly, her enforcer who makes Luca Brasi seem like Little Bo Peep. Throw in David Boies's law firm, who would threaten legal action against basically anyone Holmes disagreed with, almost the entire Hoover Institution, and a fawning press and you have a recipe for disaster. Anyone associated with Theranos will be forever tarnished.

Who comes out looking good? Carreyrou and the WSJ, obviously. A few whistleblowers, including George Shultz's grandson (although he apparently paid a hefty price for his honesty). And, most surprisingly to this reader at least, Rupert Murdoch, who as the head of Newscorp, the owner of the WSJ, and a major investor in Theranos himself, refused Holmes's repeated requests to shut down Carreyrou's investigation. Almost makes one want to forgive him for helping give us Trump. Almost.

Jennifer Lawrence is supposedly going to play Holmes in the movie. She'll have her work cut out for her. The final chapter of this story hasn't been written yet but it will likely involve Holmes, and hopefully Balwani, spending a decade or two in prison. One can only hope.

Everyone should read this fantastic book. Before I go farther I should point out that this is no ordinary review and my particular knowledge and experience make it necessary to tell you something of myself. I’m a retired FBI agent and attorney in Silicon Valley. I used to work on high-tech cases much like the one in the book. I also litigated in both local and federal courts and served as a judge (pro tem) for several years. I was the first to investigate Raj Rajaratnam, the billionaire hedge fund manager who stole insider information and was convicted of insider trading. He got eleven years. I could cite other cases, but the point is, I know what I’m talking about in this particular area. I’ll post this first section as a review, but the full writeup will be on my blog.

So, everyone who ever has had a blood test or anticipates ever having one should read it. Everyone in Silicon Valley in the tech/startup world should read it. But don’t read it just because you should; it is just the best, most engrossing, most entertaining book I’ve read in years. I read it in two days and would have done it quicker if my daughter and her husband hadn’t been visiting from out of state. If it were fiction no one would have believed it. It would seem too far-fetched. I’m also a skeptic of what’s reported in the press or in tell-all books since I’ve seen reporting that is slanted or simply inaccurate on cases of mine. But what I know from first-hand experience tells me that this author, an investigative reporter for the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), has uncovered the truth in all its frightening, disgusting ugliness. The story he tells here is exactly what I have learned to exemplify the Silicon Valley milieu in which I live. It is a story of an egomaniacal young woman who envisioned herself as the next Steve Jobs, as a superstar tech entrepreneur, as the the first self-made female billionaire high-tech corporate genius. Elizabeth Holmes, the 19-year-old Stanford dropout who is the central figure in the book, founded Theranos, a company she claimed could perform hundreds of blood tests from a few drops of blood drawn with a thumb stick, thus revolutionizing health care. It is a story of unbridled greed, lying on a pathological scale, of high officials like former Secretary of State George Schultz, retired generals, Stanford professors and others who betrayed their company, its shareholders, the patients and doctors who relied on the faulty tests Theranos produced, all for the promise of incredible riches. It’s a story of secrecy, intrigue, and intimidation. I’ll stop here for the book review sites because my next posts will contain spoilers. I’ll explain there why and how I know this book to be true and reliable. For now, I’ll just say read this riveting, superbly-written, true story. You won’t regret it.

With the exception of a passing comment about digital forensics on a desktop computer and email controls, Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup, by Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist John Carreyrou, seemingly has nothing to do with information security. It’s an extraordinarily fascinating and riveting book. And once digested, there are a number of lessons that anyone involved in information security can learn from.

A quick recap: Theranos was a health technology company that claimed it created a revolutionary method to perform a large battery of blood tests from a few drops of blood taken from the finger. Theranos was started in 2003 by then Elizabeth Holmes, a then 19-year old drop out from Stanford University.

With her charm and persuasiveness, Holmes was able to raise more than $700 million from venture capitalists and private investors. At its peak, Theranos has a valuation of over $10 billion, with Holmes net worth almost $5 billion. All of that came crashing down when Carreyrou wrote an exposé in the Wall Street Journal in October 2015 that exposed the fraud.

By March 2018, Theranos was nearly bankrupt, when Holmes and former company president Sunny Balwani were charged with massive fraud by the SEC, in addition to wire fraud and conspiracy charges. This turned out to be the largest corporate fraud case since Enron.

With that, here are a few of the information security lessons to be learned from the Theranos debacle:
• Most things are evolutionary, not revolutionary
• Beware of the snake-oil salesperson
• Board of directors of clueless old-men
• Conferences banned booth-babes for a
• There’s no magic in a Magic Quadrant
• Don’t use fear as a weapon

Bad blood is an incredibly good read

For those who plan on reading Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup, make sure to do it in your off hours. It’s so engrossing, you may forget to do you work, and that would be a policy violation.

When I was 47 I married a 24-year-old woman with borderline personality disorder (BPD). The two psychologists we saw for marital counseling didn't recognize her BPD. I didn't know what BPD was until after we divorced.

BPD is like bipolar disorder but with relationships. The most telling symptom is exalting new relationships ("You're the most brilliant person...") until the person says or does something wrong...then the person instantly, and intensely, becomes hated.

When you're the object of exaltation, everything you do makes the person with BPD happy, and people with BPD are the happiest people you've ever seen. This is like bipolar's manic phase, except that the person's mania is revolving around you. Their feelings are contagious, making you happy too.

"Bad Blood" found many people who recognized that Theranos was a sham, throughout the company's history. These people were consistently ignored by the "silver-haired gentlemen" who supported Elizabeth Holmes.

Until I read this book I didn't realize how older men play into young women's BPD. Man after man falls for Holmes's lies, all twice or three times her age. I've experienced this and it cost me only $70,000 instead of $700 million. Maybe I got off easy.

My ex-wife's response to everything was "everything's fine." But inside she worried non-stop, about anything and everything. And she was private to the point of paranoia. I was reminded of this when reading about Elizabeth Holmes' security paranoia.

If you suspect that a loved one (or co-worker) has BPD, give them this book: "The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook: Practical DBT Exercises for Learning Mindfulness, Interpersonal Effectiveness, Emotion Regulation, and Distress Tolerance," by Matthew McKay and Jeffrey C. Wood (https://www.the store.com/Dialectical-Behavior-Therapy-Skills-Workbook-ebook/dp/B0041D8UWM/). Don't mention BPD, just say that it's a workbook for improving "mindfulness".

Sunny Balwani, Holmes's boyfriend and the president of Theranos, appears to have a personality disorder characterized by out-of-proportion responses to threats, and misperception of what is a threat. For example, employees who worked forty hours a week were perceived as threats, and he obsessively checked security logs and video surveillance to see when employees arrived and left.

Another issue raised in "Bad Blood" is Theranos's disregard for medical efficacy and safety. They had no studies published in peer-reviewed journals proving their supposed new technology to be effective. The company lacked FDA approvals. I've worked in medical device manufacturing for 25 years. My company has 20+ studies and FDA approval. But in these 25 years no one has ever asked if our devices are FDA approved, and I can't remember anyone reading any of our scientific studies. In contrast, we have a competitor that claims that their device is instantly and completely effective for all patients, etc. Their device was on the market for years without scientific investigation. Their claims got wide media coverage, including a endorsement from Oprah Winfrey ("It's a miracle!"). When a study was done it found the device to be ineffective. No one paid attention to that study; in fact, a magazine wrote an article saying that the study had proven the device to be effective. I'm one of a handful of people in our field who advocate for evidence-based practice (EBP), i.e., that treatments should be proven safe and effective. Far more professionals in our field oppose EBP, and outdated treatments that have been proven ineffective are widely practiced (because they make more money for practitioners). Theranos wasn't a rogue company or different from thousands of other companies and medical practitioners, except in the money it raised and spent.

In spite of giving this one star short of perfection, I could not put this book down, and read most of it in one day. I already knew the broad outlines of this story, having followed Carreyou's reporting, and in fact driving by the Theranos buildings (ironically, just purchased by Stanford!) very frequently. (It's double fun to read this if you live in the area, with a lot of local texture reported.) But the details are amazing, as many other reviewers have noted. How this fraud could have been maintained for so long, while punishing and hurting so many people, both employees, patients and outside critics (including Carreyou), is astonishing, and one of the main themes of the book.

The reason I withheld a star is that, as has been noted in many reviews, the first half of the book introduces dozens of characters and names whose specific identity actually is not important, an many disappear, or are disappeared, in short order. It's a bit like a Russian novel, where you need a genealogy chart to track and remember all the characters. (Note to author!!!) As you strain to keep track of all these names and job titles when they are introduced, you typically find within just a few pages that they are fired. There are actually relatively few characters whose names and stories turn out to be critical and they get repeated enough so you can't forget them - Tyler Shultz, George Shultz, Erika Cheung, Sunny Balwani, several others, and of course Elizabeth Holmes. But readers should know that they shouldn't strain to track the names of a multitude of employees and other characters who are introduced early; just remember roughly what role they had, what they knew (or didn't), and how they were dealt with. (Almost all were fired, often in shockingly summary fashion - frog-marched straight from Holmes' suite to their car, w/o even being able to get their keys.)

So I would give this a 5-star for importance, and courageous reporting, and a 4-star for the narrative flow in the first half. The first half is like tracking feeder streams, but the real story is the raging river that they all coalesce into. Once those stories start to be told, as well as that of Carreyou's own reporting, the dramatic arc becomes more powerful, and it's fun and horrifying to be swept along on that ride. In this era where lies spew forth from the powerful with shocking frequency and audacity, it is critical to be reminded of the essential role of those with real expertise, moral courage, and of an independent press to hold the powerful to account. Theranos is said to be a cautionary tale for Silicon Valley, but it is moreso for our whole country.

While pretty much everyone in this book who is rich and powerful comes off looking bad, it is less a tale of typical fraud, like a Ponzi scheme, and more a tale of human foibles.  These were expertly played on by Elizabeth Holmes, a very young woman of little productive talent and no particular evident intelligence, but with a natural gift for sales and embodying the icy manipulative abilities of the sociopath.  Fascinating stuff, all of it, and worth reading just to make sure that you don’t fall into a similar trap in your life.  And, more broadly, the arc of Theranos has much to say about supposedly imminent advances in technology, from artificial intelligence to flying autonomous cars.

I will not tell the tale itself, because it is now well known, and easy to look up if you don’t know the details (although this outstanding book is by far the best way to get the details).  None of this would have come to light if it had not been for the author, John Carreyrou, a Wall Street Journal reporter who persevered in the face of threats from the company’s legion of rabid lawyers, whose main mode of action against all opponents was not to have any real claim, but to point out that they could bankrupt anyone by bringing bogus lawsuits (which, by the way, shows the need for the “English Rule,” that losers in lawsuits pay the winner’s legal fees).  At this point, I am waiting to see if Holmes goes to jail—so far, she has been treated with kid gloves, in a way different from other fraudsters.  But my bet is that is temporary.

Now, as an entrepreneur myself, even if I’m a few billion shy of the paper billions Holmes once had (although I bet I made more money last month than she did), I understand the difficulties and challenges involved.  Just like Holmes, in my early years I always said “yes” when asked by a potential customer if I could do something, on the belief that I could figure it out later.  But unlike Holmes, I’m not in the medical field, where lives and health are at stake, and I didn’t promise to spin straw into gold.  The challenges I accepted were in light manufacturing; Holmes’s were in creating and implementing technology that scores of companies and hundreds of scientists had been working on for decades.  Those are very different hills to climb.  Nobody got hurt if it turned out that I was wrong, and I could not, in fact, manufacture a particular product.  So while Holmes faced the same challenges as all entrepreneurs, that is not an excuse.

And what were her responses to those challenges, other than simply lying and then layering more lies on top, as Carreyrou documents exhaustively?  Holmes’s main response was to come up with a clever strategy, that deflected questions, raised money, and opened doors, all at the same time.  That was to find old and powerful white men who would fawn over her and whose aura would benefit her.  That’s not a strategy available to most entrepreneurs.  Obviously it’s not available to male entrepreneurs (except, I suppose, in a few industries), and most female entrepreneurs object to trading on their sex.  But men in general are susceptible to flattery, and old and powerful men by young blonde women most of all.  This was the core strategy of Theranos.

It started early; one of Holmes’s earliest backers was an elderly Stanford professor, Channing Robertson, who had taught a freshman class at Stanford that Holmes took.  Holmes dropped out of Stanford when she was nineteen, but persuaded Robertson to back her idea, which was originally a patch for drug delivery (only later did automated blood testing from a pinprick become the focus).  One of the amusing parts of reading this book is you can easily look on the Internet to see what people used to say about Holmes and Theranos.  For example, in 2014 Robertson offered this cringe-worthy quote:  “I knew she was different.  The novelty of how she would view a complex technical problem—it was unique in my experience.”  The only thing unique was that Holmes got the famous Robertson to pay attention to her and delude himself that she was unique.  And as the company became more prominent, most of the board of directors was ancient, but extremely prominent, men, such as Henry Kissinger, George Shultz, and Sam Nunn.  Others were older men still in active government or related service, such William Perry and General James “Mad Dog” Mattis.  (No women, and no people of color, were ever permitted on the board—women, in particular, would have been likely to see the empress had no clothes, and to ask unwanted questions, such as “what the hell are you talking about?”)  There is no implication of any sexual overtones; it appears that these men joined after being flattered and cosseted by Holmes.  They were told they could still contribute to society and could make lots of money to boot.  Several of them appear to have treated her as a surrogate daughter, sending her gifts, throwing her birthday parties, and trying to set her up on dates (she concealed from the board her long-term sexual relationship with her dumb and greasy “executive vice chairman,” in other words the number two person in the company, Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani, two decades older than Holmes, who, if such a thing is possible, comes off worse in this book than Holmes).  Then, the critical point, Holmes used the reputations of these men to deflect questions and to raise money—a smart and plausible strategy, in some ways, though in context slippery and used to further dishonest ends.  Similarly, in the Walgreens and Safeway partnerships, the point man for those companies was an aging man about to retire, equally susceptible to flattery.  (The Safeway CEO spent $350 million retrofitting stores merely in anticipation of putting in Theranos machines, without any due diligence at all.)  In all her dealings, none of the people Holmes had a close relationship with were anything else but old, rich, white men.

Such a course of action is not available to men, leaving the field wide open for Holmes to play this game.  I had assumed, before reading this book, that much of Theranos’s “success” was due to the widespread and desperate desire for one, just one, ultra-successful entrepreneurial company to be started and run by a woman, thereby disproving the simple and unarguable fact that men are much more likely to have the characteristics, good and bad, to drive such success.  While Carreyrou does advert to that desire, it’s pretty obvious that wasn’t a big driving factor in people lending Holmes their names and giving her their money.  It was a contributing factor to people not asking questions, and in getting Holmes positive publicity, but as far as getting money and prominent people on board, flattery by Holmes was the key.

Another thing that helped hoodwink the business world was Holmes expertly playing on the desire not to be left out of a big score, a human desire played on by con men since the days of the cavemen.  It is telling in this regard that no knowledgeable person was fooled or lost money (or pride).  Big drug companies like Pfizer all rejected what Theranos had to offer; a few tested it and found her “technology” totally lacking, so terminated talks at a very early stage.  (Holmes solved this little problem by lying that she had many partnerships with drug companies—you can’t review them, though, peasant, because “the documents are under legal review.”)  Similarly, private equity with a health-care focus declined to invest (I would have liked to see some thoughts in this book from firms that declined to invest, but they have no incentive to talk).  No board member ever had any biotechnical or medical knowledge.  Few employees had any such expertise, even, except in narrow areas.  Thus, the targeted rubes were all non-experts wanting to invest in, or work for, the new Facebook, which would also save lives, not just allow us to stalk people.

Yet another part of the reason Holmes was able to deceive so many smart, but not knowledgeable, people was the commonly held and obsessive belief, which is practically a religion in Silicon Valley, that anything technology-related must be some combination of desirable, inevitable, and world-changing.  Holmes played on this, such as by designing the (fake) interface of her (fake) blood testing machines to resemble iPhones, and by claiming, in public, that Theranos was the most important thing humanity has ever done.  Some of this is, as I say, wanting to profit from the perceived “digital future” (where “digital” is a meaningless term, used generally as a signifier of supposed awesomeness).  But much of it is a desire to be part of something bigger than oneself, something that will change the world for the better, and again, Holmes identified that, perhaps only implicitly, and took advantage of it.

An element of the story interesting to me more than most people is that all the lawyers involved were apparently incompetent or venal.  The lawyer who comes off worst is David Boies, who, like the sores of certain social diseases, keeps turning up where and when least desired by society.  Here, he alternated between a form of (unfortunately legal) extortion, threatening everyone in sight, from kids just out of college to wealthy patent holders, with crippling legal bills if they didn’t knuckle under to his demands, and at the same time dipping his beak in the Theranos pot, taking compensation in stock and accepting a seat on the board of directors (neither of which is illegal or regarded as unethical, but which certainly was aggressively tying himself to the success of the company in a way that probably clouded his judgment).  On a more technical level, the lawyers for Theranos seemed unconcerned that the board exercised, at most, an advisory role, not a corporate governance role.  Nobody seemed to object when Holmes required a change that gave her a hundred votes for every one she had had previously—and she already had more than 51% of the voting power before that.  Sure, she could have forced it, by replacing the board, but really?  That’s the sort of thing any competent lawyer would question.  And where were the lawyers for the investors?  All the lawyers I know, and knew when practicing, would regard themselves as disgraced if they didn’t insist on basic due diligence, and asking the very obvious questions Theranos’s practices raised.  Maybe they were all just overruled; Carreyrou’s book isn’t about the nuts and bolts of law.  But it’s still disturbing.  (Another thing that’s disturbing, though irrelevant, is the name “Theranos.”  It was coined to combine “therapy” and “diagnosis,” but I always thought it was far too close to “Thanatos,” the Greek personification of Death.)

OK, so here we are.  Rupert Murdoch is out $125 million, others are collectively out hundreds of millions more, and blood testing continues its incremental advance, unaffected, plus or minus, by Theranos.  What does all this say about the world of technology and technology entrepreneurs?  Quite a lot, actually.  It buttresses my contention that the vast majority of touted advances, or rather advances that are supposedly just around the corner, are lies.  They may be “lies breathed through silver,” as Tolkein said, meant well, but they are still delusions.

So, Elon Musk says “I am really quite close, I am very close, to the cutting edge in AI and it scares the hell out of me.  It’s capable of vastly more than almost anyone knows and the rate of improvement is exponential.”  This is what is known as total BS.  AI does not exist in any form that has not existed for decades, it has done nothing at all, and there is zero evidence of that changing.  Look, I think the world needs people like Musk, who live somewhere in the twilight between con man and genius, selling people a future that will help drive the human race forward.  But let’s not forget his only accomplishment is being part of a group that translated existing payment systems to the digital realm, hardly an earthshattering advance, that Tesla is a fraud that only exists because of government subsidies, and that his rockets do no more than we could do in the 1950s.  Whatever Musk says, there will never be strong artificial intelligence, and weak artificial intelligence (i.e., data processing) will not make a material difference either to people’s lives, our productivity, or our ability to advance.  There will never be a Singularity.  We will not advance our life spans in any material way.  Sorry, Ray Kurzweil.  As with Theranos, the people with knowledge are completely aware of this—just ask a real biologist about uploading brains.  But everybody else swallows the lies, through some combination of not wanting to be left out, wanting to be part of something huge, and not wanting to seem like a stupid rube.

What about driverless cars, you say?  Also BS.  Do you know how they tell where a red light is?  No?  The precise location in space of every stoplight must be pre-programmed, and if the light isn’t there, or it’s swinging in the wind, the car stops.  Autonomous cars are today’s Mechanical Turk.  That means that there will most definitely never be Uber flying autonomous cars, which are about as likely as there being Uber flying people with organic wings, yet Uber says with a straight face such cars will be commercialized by 2020, and nobody throws rotten tomatoes at them.  Whether or not technological progress has ground to an effective halt, as some argue, the flashy things everyone talks about are fiction, and will stay fiction, just as Theranos was fiction.  Sure, maybe someday, just like someday anything at all is possible—a more precise statement is the path we are currently on will never lead to truly autonomous cars, or even to cars autonomous enough to be useful to most people.  Knowledgeable people are doubtless aware of this, but just like when Theranos was at its peak, you never hear from them.  That Uber is now trying to change the conversation to flying cars is a sign of desperation, not confidence, and there is going to be a reckoning soon, unfortunately, where all this optimism crashes back to earth.

I hear the shrieks of rage and laughter.  What a Luddite!  Doesn’t he know that Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, said yesterday “Digital technology, pervasively, is getting embedded in every place: every thing, every person, every walk of life is being fundamentally shaped by digital technology—it is happening in our homes, our work, our places of entertainment.  It's amazing to think of a world as a computer.  I think that's the right metaphor for us as we go forward.”  Yes, I do know.  No, it’s not the right metaphor.  It’s a stupid metaphor.  Nadella’s claims are all false, both currently and prospectively.  First, “digital technology” is nothing new; it consists of various clever devices mostly directed at satiating (newly stimulated) consumer impulses and contributes little or nothing to human flourishing.  The same things that shape us are the same things that have always shaped us; digital technology is a mere ancillary tool that carries significant drawbacks, and which most people instead use for Tinder and cat pictures.  Second, Nadella’s explicit claim is that “embedded” digital technology is somehow going to be like a nice Skynet.  But my iPhone can’t reliably communicate using open and standard interfaces with my (quite new and very expensive) car, when physically connected by cord.  Just because everything is embedded is meaningless; I’ve been promised this future for thirty years, and it’s no closer.  Third, Nadella’s stupidity shines through in his use of the words “It’s amazing to think,” which are meant as a substitute for, you know, actually thinking, which usually leads to different conclusions.  It’s amazing to think of myself as a combination of Alexander the Great and a young Brad Pitt, but it’s also false, pointless, and takes us off the track of rationality.  (I’m more like an early middle-age, nonsmoking Brad Pitt.)

I like technology (though there is something to be said for analog, too).  Technology can make our lives more enjoyable; it can do a lot of good.  It is not as necessary as some people think—most of the truly important advances in human history were accomplished long before today’s computers.  Nor has it made that much of a difference—on a mere nuts and bolts level, technology has increased individual productivity little, if at all, after thirty years (and the benefits have not accrued to most workers, but to a small slice of those at the top).  We have an economy of service workers, not tech gods, whatever impression we may get from the news.  But still, technology can be useful, and fun.  The Theranos story, however, is a self-contained, compelling example of the blindness and groupthink that attends any claimed technological advancement, thereby giving an incentive for lies and for exaggerating advancements.  Both buyer and larger society should beware.

Oh, how I wish I could make John Carreyrou's 'Bad Blood' required reading for anyone who a) is certain that the 'marketplace' is sufficient to police private enterprise and b) thinks that journalists are 'enemies of the people.'

In laying bare the moral and ethical rot at the heart of erstwhile Silicon Valley 'unicorn' Theranos — a rot that goes by the name of Elizabeth Holmes — Carreyrou's unbelievably detailed reporting paints an astonishing, and genuinely riveting, picture. This book makes for better entertainment than most novels, movies or TV series.

Libertarian-types tend to argue that we should leave business to 'do its thing' and eschew regulation. While 'Bad Blood' shows some of the limitations of federal regulatory schemes, the problems lie with underfunding and understaffing, not necessarily an excess of regulation (though certainly there are discussions to be had about what constitutes needed and effective regulation, and not all regulations are equal).

Holmes, who strikes me as essentially a sociopath, created what amounts to a cult with Theranos, complete with rabid demands for loyalty, paranoia, secrecy, lies and myth-making. The company's purported 'big idea,' the creation of technology that could analyze literally hundreds of blood characteristics almost instantaneously from a single finger-prick sample, was always bogus science fiction. Holmes and her creepy second-in-command (not to mention 20-years-older boyfriend) Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani knew all along that it was bogus, or, to be kinder, aspirational, but lied and intimidated prodigiously to cover up the fact that it never worked as advertised.

There are those, including the current occupant of the White House, who reflexively tar journalists and journalism as somehow threatening to society. Carreyrou demonstrates the power of investigative journalism to right a wrong that could literally have killed countless thousands of innocent people. Contrary to the mindless belief among many that journalists craft everything they do according to what political 'team' they're on — a sizable majority profess to be liberal — most traditional journalists that work with actual editors and publications with high ethical standards want to pursue the story, follow the facts and portray the truth, wherever their reporting has led them.

Holmes laughably called the Wall Street Journal a 'tabloid' publication and sought to discredit Carreyrou's excellent, and well-documented reporting (eventually she and the company had nowhere to hide; the facts simply proved Carreyrou right, despite their lies).

Meanwhile, Carreyrou demonstrates that good journalism is not partisan hackery. Unsurprisingly, Holmes, Balwani and their henchmen/women curried favor with Big Names on both sides of the aisle. The board was stocked with GOP stalwarts such as Henry Kissinger and George Schultz, as well as CEOs from major corporations, while Holmes became chummy with the Obama administration and hosted a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton. Carreyrou, like any good journalist, does not try to make this into some idiotic partisan football game ... he just reports the facts, based on impeccable sources.

I know it would shock some journalist-haters out there, but this is, in fact, the way most journalists work.

I also must confess my bemusement — and jaded amusement — at the lineup of older men who fell at the attractive, blond, blue-eyed Holmes' feet. From Balwani to Shultz, Kissinger to major venture capitalists and even Rupert Murdoch, she lured these poor old bags of testosterone into blind devotion and it's not hard to see a pattern. Would 95-year-old Shultz have chosen to become estranged to his grandson, who sought to blow the whistle on the scam, if Holmes had been, say, a 62-year-old man or, heck, even a 50-year-old woman?

Holmes and Balwani are under criminal indictment. It's unlikely to come to pass, but I'd like to see them both go to prison.

Entertaining, enlightening and important in this era of journalist-bashing, 'Bad Blood' is one of the finest non-fiction books I've had the pleasure of reading in a long, long time.

This work (and it is a work, possibly of love but certainly of truth) shows the worst and the best of what we have come to recognize as American culture. The greed, the hype, the dark ambition acting against the welfare of the larger society and frankly the power of women over men (which no one is allowed to talk about these days, I know) face full on the desire to reveal truth through real professionalism and act in the public interest. It makes the reader justifiably suspicious of the gurus, charmers and general snake oil sellers who seem to have found permanent and comfortable homes in the upper reaches of our economy. Credit also goes out to Wall Street Journal for maintaining its fire wall between its news/feature section and its editorial board (which in its slavish attention to corporate will is now even more difficult to figure out) and its support of this project. Everyone should read this book. Everyone. It is also btw a page-turner.

When I first heard of Theranos around 2012, I instantly smelled a rat: former Secretaries of State George Shultz and Henry Kissinger, and General James “Mad Dog” Mattis served on its board. Why would a company with a purported mission to cure disease and save lives have multiple trained killers and war criminals on its board, but zero actual scientists? It would be like the board of Disney being composed entirely of porn producers. It made no sense.

And frankly, I wasn’t too keen on reading the book when it came out. Why delve into another sordid tale of Silicon Valley greed, excess, and VC idiocy? I felt as if the basic arc of the narrative was pretty clear.

Turns out the book is much deeper than that, and the tale far more sordid than I had imagined. It’s about vain, greedy, ruthless, mediocre people—namely, Elizabeth Holmes and then-boyfriend Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani—fooling others by appealing to their vanity and greed. It’s about a young woman with big, unblinking blue eyes and a faux baritone seducing a phalanx of older, more powerful men.

It’s also about how otherwise smart, savvy people can be fooled by heuristics (“This other rich miscreant* invested so it must be legit!”) and meta-data (“She dresses like Steve Jobs!”) instead of getting off their ass and looking at primary data. I felt a warm chuckle of schadenfreude when I found that Rupert Murdoch, that cross between a vulture and a basset hound but with less charm, was one of the dupes to the tune of $125M—a sum he invested after making just one phone call.

Another famous dupe was Walgreens, who were obsessed about not falling behind CVS Pharmacies. They played along after Holmes failed to deliver test results and reliable data for years, even after their internal experts had sounded the bullshit alarm. One group who was not fooled: actual healthcare venture capitalists. They asked Holmes a few simple questions she should have been able to answer, and she left their offices in a hissy fit. The absence of all of them from Theranos funding rounds should have been a portent to future victims.

The book also has heroes. The whistleblowers within the company spoke to journalists at considerable personal risk from the supremely vindictive and litigious machine of Holmes and Balwani. The doctors who sounded the alarm about discrepant test results got tailed by Theranos goons and personally intimidated by Balwani. These people stood firm because they placed the safety of patients paramount, over their own comfort. And I commend Carreyrou and his editor Mike Siconolfi for their steadfast courage in the face of the shameful, comic-book viciousness of David Boies and his legal team. Kudos also to Rupert Murdoch, the WSJ's owner, for declining Holmes' repeated personal appeals to kill the story in spite of his own significant stake in the company.

Although the book was gripping from beginning to end, it was also difficult to get through because of the unrelenting nastiness of Holmes and Balwani. Their routine mistreatment of employees; their summary firing and escorting of dozens of them without even a minute’s notice to pack up belongings; their intolerance of criticism; their messianic grandiosity (Holmes told employees she was building a religion); their belligerent mediocrity and ignorance: there has scarcely been less sympathetic characters in a story of fiction, let alone real life. I can’t recall so viscerally wanting someone to get their comeuppance--not even the Italian national soccer team.

One person that comes off especially poorly is George Shultz. He practically disowns his smart, heroically conscientious grandson Tyler Shultz to take the side of Elizabeth Holmes, even after Federal regulatory agencies proved true the most damning accusations Tyler made. How’s that for being a 94-year old paragon of wisdom.

Stories, belief, wishful thinking, sex appeal, hype: these can sometimes fool even well-meaning, smart folks. Would you have been duped, had you been in the place of the starry-eyed investors and board members? Or would you have seen through the veil of deceit? After seeing countervailing evidence to a cause you’ve committed to, are you able to admit error and change your mind? Where is that happening in your life right now?

What I learned is that books like these show that people’s cognitive biases and heuristics can potentially be exploited to the tune of $1B, 12 years, and hundreds of investors. But you don’t have to be one of those people. First, know that you can be fooled. Then do your homework and get primary data on whatever you’re deciding on. Get opinions from impartial experts, not fellow investors. Be wary of intimidation, pressure tactics and hype. Refuse to work with or for awful people, even if they promise to make you rich. Question vaporware, especially if it involves the health of real humans. And remember that if something is too good to be true, it almost always is.
-- Ali Binazir, M.D., M.Phil., Happiness Engineer and author of The Tao of Dating: The Smart Woman's Guide to Being Absolutely Irresistible, the highest-rated dating book on the store for 4 years, and Should I Go to Medical School?: An Irreverent Guide to the Pros and Cons of a Career in Medicine
* that would be Larry Ellison

On June 14, 2018, a federal grand jury sitting in the Northern District of California (San Jose Division), handed up an indictment involving allegations of conspiracy to commit wire fraud against Elizabeth A. Holmes and Ramesh "Sunny: Balwani, the two principal officers of Theranos, Inc.. The allegations related to the defendants development, promotion, and sales of a purported revolutionary blood testing device. The initial investigation was conducted by the author of this book, a longtime writer for the Wall Street Journal. Although the book only covers developments prior to the indictment, it remains the most complete and incisive analysis we have of the purported Theranos frauds.

The defendants had ambitious dreams for an innovative blood testing device, that required only a small amount of blood, could perform a large number of tests simultaneously, and delivered results quickly. According to the author, the problem was that Theranos could never actually produce a reliable prototype or operational version of the device, and so purportedly resorted to cheating on tests and circumventing administrative regulators instead. This process began in 2007 and continued up until the indictments. It was a fixating dream of Ms. Holmes beginning when she was a college student; the company eventually had an assessed valuation of several billion dollars funded by agreements with Walgreens and Safeway markets among others who helped finance the company. But, alas, it was unfortunately only a fantasy which never came true.

Some familiar figures pop up in the narrative: Henry Kissinger, George Schultz, and most graphically super lawyer David Boies who both represented the company and served on the board in exchange for 4.5 million shares of Theranos stock. I found most interesting Boies' efforts to, in my opinion, intimidate the WSJ so that it would not run the earth shattering story of its investigation by this book's author. Also interesting is how easy it was for this Silicon Valley startup to raise enormous sums based upon its representations about an untested device. Hugh sums of money had been quickly raised by some other Silicon Valley tech companies (Google, Facebook, Twitter for example), resulting in enormous profits--so big money dreams definitely played a role here. What of state and federal regulators? After all, we are talking about major diagnostic devices used to detect serious maladies--should the regulators have been more on top of all this? Eventually the company had to correct one million test results.

In the Epilogue, the author suggests that an idealistic Ms. Holmes did not start out to commit a giant healthcare fraud. But that only raises the question of when did she finally realize and accept the futility of her efforts to develop this incredible machine? At that point, as she continued to promote the device, she probably crossed a major threshold. The book is a superb case study of an alleged healthcare fraud--a number of which cases I both tried while at DOJ and later defended in private practice. There is nobody with the detailed knowledge of the author; insider stories of investigations are always interesting and informative. Oh, did I mention that this is simply a gripping story? One cannot but hope that someday some company will make Ms. Holmes' dreams come true because such a device would be of inestimable value to all of us.

There’s no doubt the book was well researched and sourced but for me read better in some of the excerpts I saw. This is partly due to the repetitive and quickly realized themes that cycle through consistently. Elizabeth: Dismissive. Egocentric. Fires people at will. Sunny: Mean. Yells. Fires people at will. Young scientists: Virtuous. Earnest. Lawyers who protect their clients. PR people who spin, etc. This was a narrative to be developed and nurtured rather than generalized for the first half. It didn’t truly kick in until the original WSJ article was published. Yes, many knew the story, but given the author’s inside info, I was hoping for a better crafted story.

One of the best of my recent reads (well, recent audio books I've listened to!) - very well written, detailed, and exceptional narration. The book has the "flavor of a mystery", yet is an enticing story of greed gone mad. Some of the exploits that are so carefully explained border on unbelievable - but, greed seems to know no bounds, and ruthless ambition takes a front seat in this story. It's sad that so many people got hurt, lost money, and were put in harm's way - for a piece of non-fiction, this reads like a horror novel in some aspects, a business "how-not-to-manage" book in other aspects, and a suspense/mystery novel as well. The fact that it went on as long as it did, and so many "reputable" people invested in it, are the incredulous pieces of the story - congratulations to Carreyrou for sticking to his investigative reporting skills!

The story of medical device manufacturer Theranos holds lessons for health care managers, venture capitalists, and regulators. John Carreyrou has definitely created a well-researched history that is also readable. He is careful, thorough, and (as you will learn from the litigious proclivities of the people around Theranos) courageous in putting out his Wall Street reports and this book. An interesting read in itself, the book is also worth purchasing to support Carreyrou, his paper, and his publisher.

Having written about health IT for many years, I can understand the appeal of Theranos. A common theme in the modern health care field is to draw closer to patients, to offer a simple technology that can help patients get control over crippling medical conditions in collaboration with their doctors, to find cheaper tests and cures--all legitimate goals of progressive health care.

The failure of Theranos, from this book, seems simple enough: they thought they had all the freedom of Silicon Valley software firms to create a new reality, but the basic chemical, clinical, and electrical processes in the biology of human beings put constraints on software and analytics that could not be wished away by Theranos managers. These constraints and conflicts are explained well in Bad Blood.

If you can't understand why Theranos raised so much venture capital and lasted so long, it's worth reading Bad Blood along with Barry Werth's history of early Vertex, The Billion Dollar Molecule. In Werth's book, the company was ultimately successful. But Vertex's hard work took place in a ruthless, cut-throat competitive environment and involved some ethical choices that could make readers uncomfortable. I believe there is a clear line between the machinations of Vertex employees and the unfounded claims made by Theranos, but to outsiders in a particular era, it may be hard to see when a company has violated ethical procedures.

In some cases, the checks and balances of the health care field worked. Health care is not Silicon Valley. Real experimental trials have to be passed in order for health care to accept new technologies. Therefore, well-trained professionals derailed many dangerous Theranos deployments, and government agencies eventually did their job. Even Theranos's claims in its ads were constrained by scrupulous ad writers and lawyers. But along the way, a lot of companies wasted a lot of money, competent professionals wasted a part of their careers, celebrities and new outlets who should have known better tarnished their own reputations, and one employee lost his life. Some less rigorous partners also allowed patients to receive inaccurate tests, so we don't know how many people suffered.

At times, Bad Blood may seem tedious. The same story occurs over and over: a researcher gets inspired and joins the company, then learns of its unethical practices, and eventually is driven out and perhaps sued. But keep reading, for there is an important overarching message here about trust, truth, and human beings' weakness for power.

The story itself is captivating. The execution is well done but drags a bit. It is thorough. Sometimes thorough at the expense of story telling, but I think it makes the book all the more valuable, although less of an enjoyable read. The characters are real which makes it all the more horrifying. How did She get away with it for so long. It’s truly the most fascinating part to me. For 15 years she lived a lie to her employees, investors, patients. I kept waiting for something to indicate “it was all a big misunderstanding” but Holmes comes across cold blooded the whole way through. It’s too bad too, innovation doesn’t happen overnight, the way it seems to in history books. If her time & company had been devoted to really making the innovations she claimed to make rather than lying about hem much could have been accomplished, one nano step at a time.

You should put down whatever book you’re reading right now and go pick up a copy of #BadBlood because it is the best book I’ve read/listened to this year. It boggles my mind how John Carreyrou was able to turn a story about ineffective medical devices into a pulse-pounding, riveting thriller about the rise and fall of one of the most notorious Silicon Valley start-ups in recent history...yet somehow he manages to explain complicated science in layman’s terms and make health care interesting while introducing a multitude of characters...it will shock you and fascinate you and when you’re finished, you will spend 2 hours Googling #theranos because you just can’t get enough(based on personal experience, haha).

This book is captivating. Being a medical technologist who works in a hospital laboratory, I can't fathom the things she was able to do. The depth she would go just to get the funding. The things she was letting her laboratory personnel do and the deceit were unthinkable especially since her company deals with lives. How her company lasted as long as it did was unimaginable. Although, I already know what happened in the end and there were times when she would irritate me, I still can't stop reading the book to the end.

If you want to know about Theranos, a Silicon Valley startup, a company poised to change the medical laboratory world, how it started, rise and fall. This is a very good book that will keep you turning the pages.

Elizabeth Holmes was a young Stanford dropout with a great vision. She is very charismatic and very well connected. She was able to hire great minds from great schools and recruit people from big companies to come work for her. Not only that, she was able to raise funds in the hundreds of millions from reputable investors. She was on her path to become the next Steve Jobs.

People who heard her vision just poured in money after hearing her speeches. She ran her company in deep secrecy and fear. Different departments were not allowed to collaborate. Obviously without teamwork and open communication within the company the goal was not met. If you work in the healthcare laboratory field, you know the vision is just too good to be true. But she was a great speaker who made people believe her even without visible reliable proof of anything.

Big kudos to the writer/journalist John Carreyrou and those who helped him get the truth out. Carreyrou did not waver and relentlessly pursue his investigation into the company against all the charming tactics, threats and lawyers Elizabeth Holmes sent his way.

A page turning business thriller! I listened to the book on Audible and couldn't stop listening. It would make a great gift for any business major or any young person starting his or her first corporate job. If you liked to read the books about the fall and fraud of Enron or the Madoff scandal or the many good books about the 2008 financial crisis, then you will love this book. First, you can't believe so many smart people did not do their due diligence before giving Elizabeth Holmes thousands or millions of dollars. Just because a CEO says something is true isn't due diligence. Second, Theranos was a true cult of personality like the Madoff scandal. It shares many parallels. Third, I hope that many young people learn the lesson that I learned early on: just because someone has 20 years of business experience and the title of SVP doesn't mean they actually know what they are doing sometimes. If you think you are right about something in challenging that person, you likely are!! If you recognize that a person is ethically challenged, leave the company or the department, or otherwise you will become ensnared in the web of lies and possibly ruin your own career. Lastly, I am so grateful to the American investigative press for the role that they play in our country. Also, I think that Tyler Shultz's parents should be very proud of their son, and I hope that grandpa realizes what an extraordinary grandson he has. Thank you all you courageous sources for helping John Carreyrou get the truth out.

At times a bit tedious. At other times it’s a barn burner of a story.

I admire Mr. Carreyou for having the courage and persistence to overcome the obstacles thrown in his way by Elizabeth Holmes.

For me this story shows how easily a succession of brilliant scientists, professors, and politicians were mesmerized, dazzled, and bamboozled by a gorgeous narcissist. Do you think they all would have followed her off the cliff if she’d looked like Eleanor Roosevelt?

The author was careful to simply state the facts and not to speculate about any of this. We owe Tyler Schulz and Erica Cheung our thanks for helping to avert a horrible tragedy.

This is a very good, superbly reported read ... and an unexpectedly frightening one. From previous reading, my image of Elizabeth Holmes was that of a misguided idealist who made some errors, but was probably good at heart and well-intentioned. This book completely disabused me of that belief. Holmes comes across as a pathological liar, willing to stop at seemingly nothing to accomplish her goals. Walter White of Breaking Bad seems like a pale version of her.

I admit to more than just a little schadenfreude when I read of the many bigwigs who Holmes turned into complete idiots and enticed on to her Board. But beyond that, what is incredibly frightening is how she was able to marshal the immense power of America's legal system to pursue those who dared call BS on her fraud by threatening to ruin their lives, their families and their livelihoods without the slightest compunction.

Holmes has been charged with criminal acts and faces jail time. One hopes that she goes away for a long, long time. It is very likely that the completely unsympathetic Ramesh Balwani will go to jail too. They will both richly deserve it. The third villain who comes through as little more than a Mafioso in legal robes is David Boies. In a just world, he too should be tossed in jail for being the willing henchman of Holmes & Balwani, using his legal prowess to browbeat, threaten and intimidate all those who would have exposed this ugly fraud. It is a pity that he won't go to jail or even be charged for his actions. But one can hope that his reputation is tarnished forever (his Prop 8 victory nothwithstanding).

Holy cow, this story is simply stunning! The chutzpah of Elizabeth Holmes, the inability of so many smart people to see through her fraud! Her board of directors was probably the most prestigious collection of men in the history of boards, and yet she managed to lie and deceive and bamboozle them for years! How could a 19-year-old college dropout convince so many venture capitalists to pour money into an idea that had no possibility of being realistic?

The book is well-written, understandable, and well-sourced.

But it's the story itself that simply stuns. I almost feel that this young woman was able to literally hypnotize people into believing her lies. Was it because *she* believed them, that she could make other people believe them as well.

This story is worse than Bernie Madoff. He merely fooled people about their money and investments. This woman did that, PLUS she gambled with people's health in the process.

At this point in time (October 2018), I am losing faith in the rationality of humans! People can believe ANYTHING, if they want to badly enough!

A completely griping tale of how Elizabeth was able to "fake it" to the very end to try to make it in Sillicon Valley at any cost. Including potentially harming people in the process. Doctors count on blood tests to determine how to treat patients and with her fake tests, she produced false results causing harm to people. She was undeterred at what consequences there were. She continued to lie and lie big in front of hundreds of people. She was what is thought of as a sociopath since she was never remorseful for what she had done.

She believed herself to be a disrupt-er but you can not make things up in health care. There is a reason there is an FDA to prevent fraudsters like this company. Thank goodness there are people with a moral compass that worked in her company and saw her schemes first hand. A riveting read and a cautionary tale for anyone who believes in hypes. They are smoke and mirrors until proven otherwise. A lot of smart and intelligent people fell for her deception because they wanted to believe the impossible. Similar to believing in a time machine. If it's too good to be true, it probably is

I enjoy reading financially-oriented non-fiction and Carreyrou's book is one of the best I have ever read. It evidences a tremendous amount of hard work, interviewing, good old-fashioned shoe-leather-on-the-ground investigative reporting, you know, the kind we used to have before the internet reduced out attention span to seconds. He gets it right on Ms. Holmes and Mr. Balwani. My daughter is a lab tech doing blood testing and she said the "pin prick" device Theranos was touting should have been immediately recognizable as a fraud, you can't reliably test with such a small sample. It appears no one did their due diligence. Some big names come off very badly, i.e., George Schultz, Kissinger and Jim Mattis, our current Secretary of Defense, who said Holmes was about the most ethical person he'd ever met! Ouch!
This is probably the best book of this genre since Bethany McLean's "The Smartest Guys in the Room," on Enron. By the way, I'm hoping that Ms. McLean will turn her Vanity Fair article on Valiant Pharmaceuticals into another great book, that's another great story that needs to be told, again a situation with many red flags waving in the wind, which some of us saw well before the debacle.

At the end of his fascinating and fast-paced book John Carreyrou wonders whether Elizabeth Holmes might be a sociopath. Wisely, he does not venture an answer. Nor will I. Like Carreyrou, I’m not a psychiatrist. But that puzzle remains unsolved in my mind, if only because, for years, Holmes beguiled and bamboozled a battalion of luminaries: mega-rich venture capitalists, renowned diplomats (George Shultz and Henry Kissinger), seasoned journalists (among them Fareed Zakaria and a staff writer for the New Yorker), fearsome trial lawyers (David Boeis), and battle-hardened generals (James Mattis). More fascinating than the details of Holmes’s serial shenanigans is the question of how so many smart, experienced people could have been fooled by a twenty-something Stanford dropout with wafer-thin credentials in medical technology and hematology, the fields most closely related to the ponzi-game-based company (Theranos) that she created and ran for several years. The book does not provide the answer, but Carreyrou, who has written a superbly crafted, riveting account, can scarcely be blamed for that: we may never know. (Indeed even Holmes may not.) Many of those whom she duped may now be asking themselves the same question. If not, they certainly should be.

Wow...well done John!
This is just a great piece of writing and journalism!
Miss Holmes may have started out with an altruistic mindset, but that obviously and quickly turned into an incredible disaster and Bernie M.-like major Silicon Valley bamboozle!
What on earth happened to everyone’s judgement? 19 years old, not a shred of experience or education in the medical field and people laid out millions because ...? Wells Fargo would’ve turned her down for a payday loan people!
She’s scary looking...John, this could possibly be written for TV as a new Carl Kolchak Nightstalker episode...could be fun.

Seriously, excellent!

Loved the book and the story telling. There are hundreds of reviews here that go into details of Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes, I will avoid rehashing it here. But, there's always something to learn from every story. Here are my key lessons from the book:

1. Salesmanship is a highly underrated skill. A 19-year old college dropout with minimal science background was able to con investors, media and corporations out of hundreds of millions of dollars. All by being a great salesman!

2. Ethics matter in all walks of life. Lies, deceit and cutting the corners will eventually catch up with you. Karma is a bit*h!

3. Rich are, almost always, not the smartest people around. Your skills, expertise and fame from an industry don't translate automatically to other walks of life.

4. Wisdom is hard to find. One has to work for it continuously.

5. Luck plays a HUGE role in your success. Always be humble.

Bad Blood tells the story of one of the most amazing con jobs in modern times. Elizabeth Holmes, a 19 year-old Stanford dropout started a Silicon valley company called Theranos. She was named the first female self-made billionaire after raising $8 billions dollars for Theranos. Elizabeth had no health, technology, or science background, and yet she promised the world she could do hundreds of lab tests from just a pin-prick of blood using an amazing new medical device her company created. She was advised by Larry Ellison, famed co-founder of Oracle. Her board members included super powerful people like former Secretaries of State, Charles Schultz and Henry Kissinger, Senator Sam Nunn, Senator Bill First, and general Jim Mattis, our current Secretary of Defense! She idolized Steve Jobs, so she dressed in black turtle necks like he did. She named one of her devices the 4S, after what was then the most current version of the iPhone.
The problem was, her devices were fake! And so was her strangely low voice! And yet this mesmerizing young lady (she was said to stare unblinkingly for long periods of time at whomever she was speaking) managed to sign partnership agreements with both Safeway and Walgreens to create mini-labs in their stores. None of her medical devices had approval from any regulatory body to conduct tests on human beings. Safeway and Walgreens were so eager to offer this new technology they did not do any proper vetting of Elizabeth or her devices. Walgreens customers in California and Arizona were human guinea pigs who were subjected to repeat lab testing and even trips to the ER when their Theranos test results were alarming for revealing potentially life-threatening conditions. Once the lab tests were repeated by other laboratories, however; the repeat lab tests showed none of the abnormalities were real.
This whole sham would likely be continuing to this day were it not for Wall Street journalist John Carreyrou receiving a tip from a pathologist that Theranos was a sham. He tracked down and worked closely with former Theranos employees to get the inside story. It was Carreyrou’s October 2015 article in the Wall Street Journal that started the eventual implosion of Theranos. On August 31, 2018 Theranos finally ceased their operations. In June 2018 Holmes was indicted on criminal charges in San Francisco. It will be interesting to see the outcome of the indictment.

Wow, this one was great. No matter what kind of books you like to read, this one is worth picking up. Fascinating tale of Theranos and the CEO and Founder, Elizabeth Holmes. This shouldn't be a spoiler because it is all over the news, but Theranos is in a lot of trouble right now. There is a good chance that multiple people will be going to prison. How did a healthcare startup fool so many people? How did someone who had been knighted by Silicon Valley as the next Steve Jobs fail so spectacularly? This is not a simple tale of deceit - some of the smartest people in America were fooled and dragged into this scheme that ended up hurting a lot of people. This story is still unfolding and the book is written by the reporter who helped bring it all to light. Excellent, highly recommended.

Couldn't put this book down. Amazing. Literally, from the first page to the last, this story is told so well and with such clarity and organization - it's amazing that this happened. It does help that I am a pathologist (of which there are too few in this whole story, which probably contributed to the lies/failures of the company!) but you certainly don't need to be one to understand the concepts.

One critique, and minor, is that there are so many people in the book - some of whom are transient, (often due to the high turnover of employees!) is that it can be hard to keep up. Some physical details or background might have helped cement a few characters throughout the tale, but this is done well with the majority of the major players. Awesome book overall.

A painless single drop of blood to get hundreds of different tests for just a few dollars with results delivered in minutes at your local Walgreens, what’s not to like? Unfortunately this was an ongoing fraud lead by a sociopath (Elizabeth Holmes). During the short lived Walgreens-Theranos joint venture, they offered 240 blood tests. 160 were done with regular venous draw. Another 70 were done with a single drop. But, they went through a blood dilution protocol to be analyzed by a traditional blood analyzer from Siemens. Finally, there were only 10 true Theranos blood tests where they used a single drop of blood and Theranos technology to analyze it. Out of 240 tests offered, the 160 venous draw traditional tests worked just fine. All the others were alarmingly inaccurate.

The narrative has a lot of politics, litigations, and manipulation. The tension within the Schultz family is intense, including between the 94 year old George Schultz, former Secretary of State, and his grandson Tyler, a leading Theranos whistleblower. And, Tyler is the winner within this morality tale. On other counts, Elizabeth Holmes ability to raise funds is impressive. She will get Robert Murdoch to invest $125 million in Theranos. Later, she will attempt to have Murdoch block the author from releasing his articles within the Wall Street Journal so as to protect his investment in Theranos. To his credit, Murdoch (owner of the WSJ) does not budge and protects the WSJ independence. And, he magnanimously loses his entire investment. Eventually, Theranos will waste $900 million in investors’ funds mainly on lawsuits.

There is another side to the story. In March 2016, a formal study was completed and published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation benchmarking numerous Theranos blood test results against LabCorp and QuestDiagnostics, the two leaders in blood testing. And, on most counts Theranos test results came up surprisingly close to the leaders (cholesterol panel came up a bit too low; other tests were very close). The study was undertaken by 13 independent scientists coming from leading institutions with no affiliation with Theranos and no economic conflict of interest. The study does not specifically mention if Theranos participated at all in the study. But, it discloses that Theranos finger prick were collected and processed on sites before shipping the blood to a central Theranos facility in Newark, California for testing.

The study testing was conducted in mid July 2015. In January 2016, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the main lab regulator, announces that Theranos tests were faulty and not approved. And, in July 2016 CMS formally revokes Theranos license to run such tests and bans Elizabeth Holmes from running a lab operation. The Newark lab is soon closed down. So, the authors of the study should have been aware of CMS first troubling announcement in January 2016. Yet, they complete and release their study in March 2016. They even make a small correction to it (related to the original date in 2015) and confirm their results in July 2016. The study contradicts everything in the book and in the CMS findings. What gives?

I welcome well supported insights from anyone who can resolve this conundrum.

4.5 Stars

Elizabeth told the gathered employees that she was building a religion. If there were any among them who didn’t believe, they should leave.

Wow! What a powerful story. I'm a fan of financial stories and I personally work in the tech industry so when I heard about this book I knew I had to read it. If you like shows like Shark Tank, I think you will find this story interesting.

Elizabeth Holmes is 19 and an incredibly smart girl. She decides to dropout of Stanford because she has an idea for a medical device that could literally change the entire medical industry. The device is supposed to eliminate drawing blood through a large needle and instead simply prick your finger and get results faster. She becomes romantically involved with a guy 20 years her senior named Sunny who becomes a powerhouse at the company. They name the company Theranos. Elisabeth is called the next Steve Jobs. Her company goes and eventually is valued at 9 Billion dollars and she becomes the most valuable female CEO ever. Walgreens and Safeway buy into the idea and invest millions. Other famous names invest as well such as, Rupert Murdoch.

This all sounds good and well right? Well what if you worked at a company and found out the entire product was a lie and didn't actually work? What if you realized that the company you are working for made a product that can potentially kill people because the company is faking results and putting innocent lives at risk? Would you quit or say something? If you quit you get harassed & sued (you have to sign an NDA) if you speak a word. If you speak up you immediately get fired and harassed. Let's just say the grass isn't always greener. One day the lies start to come out from a WSJ article when ex-Theranos employees start to speak anonymously...

But how could this woman continue to keep this lie going for over 10 years?

This story honestly blew me away. I have no idea how large companies such as Walgreens and Safeway were able to not see through the lies. Maybe Elizabeth was an amazing negotiator but if I invested hundreds of millions of dollars and the product wasn't hitting timelines I would end that ASAP. I think that the companies had FOMO (fear of missing out), at least Walgreens did. They were afraid of CVS getting the business instead, only to be duped.

The author, who is also the WSJ journalist who broke this story, calls Elizabeth a sociopath. He says they are defined by: not having a conscience in regards to actions they've taken. I'm not sure I would have pegged her as that but when you think about it, she literally could have killed people if doctors actually believe this medical device worked. Luckily, the WSJ article broke before it became a real problem. But morally how can someone do that? Oh and if you look Elizabeth up online she's already starting to try to get people to invest in a new business idea she has. I guess she's moved on...

This story was so interesting and I highly recommend for those who enjoy good business scandals/investment stories. It was a wild ride and I also learned a lot about blood science! This definitely lives up to the hype.

4.5 of 5 stars

After reading journalist John Carreyrou's investigative book, Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup, I do believe truth can be stranger than fiction. How in the world did such a young lady fool so many tenured business people and politicians? This book is an in-depth look at Elizabeth Holmes and her startup, Theranos. The genesis of the book was derived from Carreyrou's October 2015 Wall Street Journal report.

Simply put this book is investigative journalism at its finest.

I think the prevailing theme in this book is that we, as a society, have to get back to the facts. The lies and deception have to stop. We are not better off having been persuaded to one person (or group's) way of thinking. Rather, the truth shall set us free.

I thoroughly enjoyed the way Carreyrou presented this fact-based story. He was very detailed, explaining complex science and medical processes in a way that made it easy for this liberal arts major to understand. Having said that, some of his format caused confusion for me. The way that he interchanged the identification of key players by using their first names and last names made it difficult to follow because there were a lot of players involved. Also, I found the change of perspective midway through the book troublesome. He told the first part of the story in third person, and then when his role was introduced, he abruptly changed to first person.

Googling "Elizabeth Holmes" will generate a plethora of articles, videos, and photos. Check out the free Way Back Machine to get some insight to the now defunct Theraonos website. I've watched some online videos, and I can certainly see the effectiveness of her persuasive communication skills. She doesn't offer up a whole lot of science, but she uses her words very well. It is easy to see how her charisma and charm won over so many people (especially older men who were ridiculously memorized by her).

The saddest thing about this whole story is that Holmes had a good idea. Despite knowing the outcome, I found myself pulling for her technology to work. What if she wouldn't have gotten in her own way and succeeded? What if she had listened to the many voices of reason and developed a societal-changing product? She not only robbed her investors, partners, and customers but also society as a whole because tunnel vision and greed resulted Theranos' demise. Instead, the only thing Holmes succeeded in was proving the old adage true - If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Recommendation: If you want to learn more about this fascinating true story, please check out Bad Blood. This book offers so much more than what you can glean online.

Until next time ... Read on!

Regardless of whether I purchase a book, borrow a book, or am gifted one, my ultimate goal is to be honest, fair, and constructive. I hope you've found this review helpful.

This riveting journalistic triumph details the fraud which “was” Theranos and its media besotted darling owner, Elizabeth Holmes, and, the courage of a few company lab technicians and professionals who took the Hippocrates Oath to heart and came forth, acting upon it. This 400 page “can’t put down” expose’ is also a searing indictment of Theranos’ docile “see no evil” board of directors, “poobahs” of American political leadership, the most prominent being, George Shultz, and America’s complicit media which eagerly elevate the wholly ruthless Ms. Holmes to Steve Jobs-ian deification. The author comprehensively tracks the scam, makes readable and understandable the medical complexities of blood and, in doing so, writes with a commendable accusatory brio.

This long-form and comprehensive account of the growth and unraveling of the unicorn start-up Theranos and its found Elizabeth Holmes was a fast-paced and galling read. Carreyrou has done more than simply expand on his original reporting in the Wall Street Journal. He has constructed a well-paced and fascinating narrative of group-think, where those who do their own independent work are mocked and criticized and association with famous names is seen as endorsement. While the saddest stories here are the patients deceived by Theranos's faulty testing, Carreyrou's particular ire--and the animating force of the last ten chapters or so--is what he has described as the "thug-like" tactics of Theranos's law firm Boies Shiller.

Standford dropout Holmes's ascent gets relatively little play. Carreyrou seems particularly fascinated by her large unblinking blue eyes and (perhaps affected) baritone. But he does credit her also with a powerfully persuasive persona, which she pathetically cribbed from accounts of Steve Jobs. Her personality is so persuasive that she persuades statesman George Schulz to side with her against his own grandson, who helps uncover Theranos's fraud. Name-dropping, hyper-secrecy, and the starfucker refusal to hold people accountable leads to Theranos become a Silicon Valley golden child without even having a functional prototype of its advertised blood testing machine. Dollars follow, celebrities and politicians jump on the bandwagon (always assuming someone else has checked the facts), and lawyers protect the whole fraudulent enterprise through a coordinated campaign of legal intimidation.

Ultimately, however, the account has a happy ending when Holmes is exposed; one can only hope a future addition includes an epilogue depicting her in a prison cell.

This is a masterpiece of investigative reporting of the blood testing firm Theranos. Its founder Elizabeth Holmes managed to hoodwink the elite of Silicon Valley and the establishment with board members George Schultz, Henry Kissinger, General James Mattis and investors like Rupert Murdock, Larry Ellison, et al. At the time the book was published it was unclear whether she would be prosecuted but in June, she and her boyfriend/President were indicted for wire fraud. Look for a consent decree. The book lagged a bit in the middle with repeated revelations about disgruntled employees but became breathless drama when the author published his expose in the WSJ and all out war was declared. One character in the drama, Tyler Schultz, George’s grandson, forced his parents to spend $400,000 in legal fees to protect his whistleblowing. This is an example of how deep pocket companies can literally bankrupt you when they turn their legal guns on you. Very intimidating.

It was interesting to see Holmes on You Tube calmly lying to reporters. The woman has a preternatural ability to remain calm and focused and likable under the most stressful circumstances.

I like many other reviewers couldn't put this book down once I started, Finished in 2-days but even when I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about it. I first remember reading her story in the Saturday Edition of the WSJ Weekend Interview, which is really a Saturday morning puff piece. However, when the story first broke as a front page news story, it was riveting. I mean, who doesn't like a good story about a newly minted unicorn. Except, this was a big fraudulent scheme of hubris, bullying and technological nothingness. In other words, what may have started out as something sincere, was just another con.

Unbridled greed after sex, has bought down many a man. Holmes and her bully-boy, boyfriend Sunny used said greed and the promise of greed to threaten and threaten and threaten employees and associates alike. One thing I wish the story would explain; Elizabeth met Sunny during a trip to China after befriended her because she was being bullied. She was a Stanford sophomore on a China Fellowship?

Elizabeth and Sunny became involved in an unbelievable fraud, but what about the board that included George Shultz, Jim Mattis, David Boise and Henry Kissinger (who gets a pass because of his age). It was nothing more than a prestige board, like most boards except these were very accomplished men.

On the other hand, Charlotte Shultz was a real heroine defending their grandson Tyler who had the balls to stand up and push back against the fraud after he realized it after 7 months on the job. Along with Erika Cheung, a Chinese immigrant, Ian a British scientist who eventually committed suicide but his wife had the courage to tell the story despite the threats; Gary Yamahoto from CMS, FDA and LTC Shoemaker US Army both withstanding the pressure from various civilian and military leaders. They were having people followed, spied on them and threatening them and their families. It costs these people untold mental anguish and financial costs.

The Obama administration doesn't get off lightly despite the work of the federal government (prodded by the state of NY). They gave this cover girl entrée and feted her at the White House on more than one occasion. And VP Biden who visited the Theranos Potemkin facility comes off as a real dufus.

This entire scheme couldn't have happened without the 'follow the heard mentality' of the news media, Its shameful fawning and lack of due diligence is why so many millions of Americans think of it as # FakeNews now. Couldn't agree more.

I like to listen to books during my commute. I'd of course heard of Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes in the news over the past few years but didn't follow it closely. The book seemed like a good opportunity to learn more. Last night stuck in traffic I randomly selected it from several books I hadn't started yet. It grabbed me from the beginning. Once I got home, I listened until midnight and was sorely tempted to listen to the last two hours. I finally went to sleep but started it up again first thing and was done with it before I got to work this morning.

Bad Blood is a fascinating tale of a sociopath who knew from a young age she wanted to be a billionaire (she didn't want to be President, Presidents would want to marry her because she was rich) and was relentless and ruthless in making it happen, starting before she was 20. From the beginning, she never had a working product but spent over a decade lying and tyrannically shutting down anyone who ever questioned anything. So many people were aware of issues with their piece of the pie but the company punished and "disappeared" anyone who talked to people in other silos of the company. The level of surveillance and compartmentalization of the company would seem like overkill for the CIA. Over and over small groups would more or less stumble into each other and get to talking and realize how rotten the whole thing was. A courageous few were willing at great cost to themselves to talk to outside regulators and the book's author to make the world aware of the farce and the harm it was doing to real, live patients.

Meanwhile, some of the most powerful and savvy political and economic powerhouses of the last century were seduced so easily by Elizabeth, her big blue eyes and her lies. Some to this day defend her even though she pathologically lied to them and everyone else for a decade and burned through untold millions of dollars. The epic faith they had in her and their inability to accept facts that didn't add up let her get rid of any employee or board member that started to lose their rose-colored glasses and start asking questions. She played them like a fiddle and they couldn't get enough of her.

You have to read it to believe it and even then you'll be stunned at what she managed to do via fear, intimidation, charisma, and those sociopathic tendencies that let her lie to anyone anytime and double-down as many times as needed.

In my legal career I knew a lawyer who pulled off, for a while anyway, a one billion four hundred thousand dollar Ponzi scheme. Associated with his operation was both excessive secrecy and endless self promotion, two seemingly antagonistic activities that furnished the fuel for the scam.

Elizabeth Holmes, an attractive brilliant twenty-something Stanford dropout, consumed by ambition to have the things billionaires have, founded a company Theranos whose vision was to use a single finger stick to draw a drop of blood which could run thousands of lab tests almost instantaneously and run the big boys, Quest and Labcorp out of business. She sold her vision to Walgreens, Safeco, investment bankers, hedge funds, former cabinet members, and business publications like the Wall Street Journal over most of her company’s fifteen year run.

The irony is that one Journal reporter John Carreyrou drawn to hype as a result of a pitch from Theranos law firm found more questions than answers when he went to write what was otherwise likely to be another puff piece for Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes.

Carreyrou’s reporting exposed the Empress’s new clothes, styled after Steve Jobs, for its naked greed and deceit. As. Carreyrou posits, a scam based on a health related device which is intended to be used by an unsuspecting public is by definition dangerous and a threat to health as a result of misdiagnosis.

In short, this is a thorough and balanced takedown of a dangerous enterprise by a reporter determined to find the truth, no matter what obstacles are thrown in his way.

The first Theranos story I read was John Correyrou's article about Tyler Schultz in WSJ back in 2016. It read like a movie script for a thriller. I even commented at that time that Jennifer Lawrence could play Elizabeth Holmes. I just had to buy the book. I brought it on my recent vacation. Some sections of the first 2/3 of the book were hard to read because I just couldn't believe the audacity of Holmes's lies and how she got away with them. Once the writer entered the picture at about the last 1/3 point, the book turned into a journalistic thriller on the level of "All the President's Men". I couldn't put it down and read it through the night. It's a good thing I was on vacation!

The research for the book was impeccable and the structure of the book was very good. However, I feel the end was rushed. In an interview, Correyrou said the release date was moved up after the SEC settlement. Maybe that's why it feels rushed at the end. The writer needs to extend the ending and add updates for the next edition. Also, the writer tried too hard to stay "neutral". For example, he consistently downplayed the possibility that he's followed by PIs. If people he met heard from Theranos's lawyers immediately after meeting him, it means he's followed. There's no ifs or buts about it. John, you're allowed to stretch out the dramatic points a bit or not be neutral for a change.

Overall, investigative journalism at its best. John Correyrou, take a bow. You deserve another Pulitzer. I'm glad I subscribe WSJ and I'll keep my eyes out for the movie.

This book is awesome - I feel like I didn't fully understand the fraud behind Theranos before reading this book, despite being immersed in media and reading a lot of coverage of the company and its downfall, and I think the reason is that blood testing is hard to understand, and it's easy for companies like Theranos to mount very effective PR campaigns against negative coverage when the underlying science is difficult for lay people such as myself to comprehend. But what John Carreyrou does in this book is masterful - you finish the book aghast at the ability of Elizabeth Holmes to sucker as many serious people for as long as she did, and as effectively as she did. And the science is made so clear and understandable. For journalism buffs the book is a wonderful story about the importance of perseverance and tenacity in keeping after a big scoop even when it seems like the odds might be against you. The author and his publication were threatened by some of the most powerful and feared lawyers in the country but this book should be required reading for journalism classes because the stories were ultimately published and followed up and they made a lasting difference. The scale of the fraud uncovered here is remarkable, and there aren't enough good things I can say about this book except Buy It!

DISCLAIMER: I borrowed the book from the local public library.

As someone who's interested in investments - and how they can be brilliant or horrible - I found this book to be an absolute page-turner.
Ms. Holmes vision from childhood was to become a billionaire, but her parents must have strongly influenced her in that direction.

Absolutely fascinating how many investors, young and old, were charmed out of their money by a sweet-talking, pretty face. Her boyfriend was nothing more than a rich, thuggish bully, whom she jettisoned when things got rough. What an unsavory character he is !

Sad to see older men, such as George Schultz, Rupert Murdoch, and Mr. Burd, taken in by all her noxious palaver. It calls to mind the saying, "There's no fool like an old fool.". Too bad for them. How very odd, also, that nonagenarian Schultz took to communicating via lawyers with his grandson Tyler. The grandson had a much better view of the situation.

As a small-time investor, I've read - and re-read several more times - the classic investment books "Security Analysis" (by Graham & Dodd) and "The Intelligent Investor" (by Graham alone). Their absolute insistence on looking over a company's numeric data (quantitative factors) as well as its subjective side (qualitative factors) was intended to guard investors. The fact that Theranos was privately held and no IPO appeared to be on the horizon, meant that there was a dearth of published financial data. Little or no governance of financial data by the SEC, either.

A well-written book by Mr. Carreyrou. Definitely worth reading !

This book was fascinating. It is a great example of fact is definitely stranger than fiction and real crooks are more interesting than fictional ones. I had never heard of Theranos previously, but this book was recommended by various reading blogs. It was amazing that Theranos was able to get $900 million in funding before actually producing a successful and dependable medical device. People, particularly men, were fascinated by Elizabeth Holmes. She wasn't an entrepreneur or role model for young women, but a femme fatale. She could have led to the death of thousands of people with faulty blood tests.

This is a deftly written, meticulously laid out account of the Theranos debacle. It begin with a succinct but telling account of founder Elizabeth Holmes' childhood in which she outlines her goal to be "a billionaire", to developing a tantalizing but unrealistic startup idea to obtain a myriad of test results from a few drops of blood obtained by fingerstick testing. The idea and the narrative were so tempting that many were mesmerized by the concept despite the lack of proof of feasibility. What happens next is a distortion of the company's purported aims and the sacrifice of that mission in order to maintain a facade of a technology that wasn't really ready for clinical use. Carreyrou sharply illustrates the secrecy and misconstructions that the company used to evade and mislead regulators, investors, and most importantly the patients and clinicians who placed their trust in the lab. One critique is that the ending seemed a bit abrupt, compared to the very detailed build-up, but this is likely because a lot of the events are still ongoing. This is an excellent piece of investigative journalism.

This books describes the rise and fall of a deceiver, and the willingness of powerful people, many of whom were financially invested, in propagating the lies of a too-good-to-be-true Silicon startup. The terrifying part is that the company came very close to hurting the physical well-being of consumers through shoddy medical testing that was almost allowed to operate out of Safeway grocery stores and neighborhood Walgreens stores. Thank goodness for a free and strong press, that kept digging in spite of legal threats and cries of “fake news” from Elizabeth Holmes and her enablers.

Thank you for writing this! It took me a while to gain some momentum, but then, I was hooked.
It also helped me to understand the current administration. How do you get away with lying?
1. Fire people (or they resign) as they see the truth. Churn personnel.
2. Threaten them after they leave.
3. Find people who "want" or "need" to believe. For Holmes, it was Safeway, etc., who wanted to rekindle their growth, and would look beyond warning signs.
4. Create personal, not institutional, relationships.
5. Hire lawyers. Boies comes across as poorly as anyone in this book, in my opinion.
6. Have a story line people want. For Homes, it was "female" and "Silicon Valley does more than apps, it saves lives."

I must also admit: Rupert Murdoch comes across as near saintly. He's willing to write off $125 million (and some of his pride, I suspect) to completely allow the WSJ to report the story.