John Carreyrou

The Financial Times & McKinsey Business Book of the Year A New York Times Notable Book A Washington Post Notable Book One of the Best Books of the Year: NPR, San Francisco Chronicle, Time, Esquire, Fortune, Marie Claire, GQ, Mental Floss, Science Friday, Bloomberg, Popular Mechanics, BookRiot, The Seattle Times, The Oregonian, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal In 2014, Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes was widely seen as the next Steve Jobs: a brilliant Stanford dropout whose startup "unicorn" promised to revolutionize the medical industry with its breakthrough device, which performed the whole range of laboratory tests from a single drop of blood. Backed by investors such as Larry Ellison and Tim Draper, Theranos sold shares in a fundraising round that valued the company at more than $9 billion, putting Holmes's worth at an estimated $4.5 billion. There was just one problem: The technology didn't work. Erroneous results put patients in danger, leading to misdiagnoses and unnecessary treatments. All the while, Holmes and her partner, Sunny Balwani, worked to silence anyone who voiced misgivings--from journalists to their own employees. Rigorously reported and fearlessly written, Bad Blood is a gripping story of the biggest corporate fraud since Enron--a tale of ambition and hubris set amid the bold promises of Silicon Valley.

Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup

Bad Blood

NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY: NPR, The New York Times Book Review, Time, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post • The McKinsey Business Book of the Year The full inside story of the breathtaking rise and shocking collapse of Theranos, the one-time multibillion-dollar biotech startup founded by Elizabeth Holmes—now the subject of the HBO documentary The Inventor—by the prize-winning journalist who first broke the story and pursued it to the end. “The story is even crazier than I expected, and I found myself unable to put it down once I started. This book has everything: elaborate scams, corporate intrigue, magazine cover stories, ruined family relationships, and the demise of a company once valued at nearly $10 billion.” —Bill Gates In 2014, Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes was widely seen as the female Steve Jobs: a brilliant Stanford dropout whose startup “unicorn” promised to revolutionize the medical industry with a machine that would make blood testing significantly faster and easier. Backed by investors such as Larry Ellison and Tim Draper, Theranos sold shares in a fundraising round that valued the company at more than $9 billion, putting Holmes’s worth at an estimated $4.7 billion. There was just one problem: The technology didn’t work. A riveting story of the biggest corporate fraud since Enron, a tale of ambition and hubris set amid the bold promises of Silicon Valley.

Lindy B

It's the Theranos story, told comprehensively and without flair. 

I do wish that Carreyrou had fully committed to the editorializing he sometimes gestures towards in probing what exactly it is about American work culture, and especially the business culture of Silicon Valley, that enabled Holmes  et al. to defraud people for over a decade. To give two examples, Carreyrou seems to be aghast by Theranos's practice of providing a catered supper to its employees in return for expected overtime late into the evening, but neglects to mention that in Silicon Valley/startup culture this is standard. Based on the number of times he mentions it, Carreyrou is also perturbed by Holmes's veneration of Steve Jobs, but he glances over how the cultivating of a cult of personality is highly recommended to those seeking financial success. I suspect Carreyrou's reluctance to criticism stems from his employment with the Wall Street Journal, which is, at the end of the day, a journal that must protect its own industry. And we all know Silicon Valley is the new Wall Street, complete with the (lack of) ethics.

Predictable, the tale of many startups with lower stakes and less funding. We need to fund better companies and investors.

John Nettles

Nice quick read

Worth a library check out. Interesting look at start up culture an the blindness that can accompany an obsession with innovation.

Furculita Alexandru

What went wrong for Elizabeth Holmes is that she applied the current Silicon Valley's ways of doing things to the wrong domain. What is unbelievable it is how long this took place under the "strict" supervision of the government.

Maurice FitzGerald

Really dove into the more unknown aspects of the theranos story. Humanized alot of the people involved and added some background onto just how big of a scandal it really was and why. The web of lies and crimes almost made this read like a crime thriller. Even though the ending was in the media the writing made me want to listen on to hear the writer tell it.

Maria Tapia

Winner of the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award 2018 "You will not want to put this riveting, masterfully reported book down. No matter how bad you think the Theranos story was, you'll learn that the reality was actually far worse." Bethany McLean, bestselling coauthor of The Smartest Guys in the Room and All the Devils Are Here A New York Times bestseller to be adapted into a film with Jennifer Lawrence to star. In 2014, Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes was widely seen as the female Steve Jobs: a brilliant Stanford dropout whose startup 'unicorn' promised to revolutionize the medical industry with a machine that would make blood tests significantly faster and easier. Backed by investors such as Larry Ellison and Tim Draper, Theranos sold shares in a fundraising round that valued the company at $9 billion, putting Holmes's worth at an estimated $4.7 billion. There was just one problem: the technology didn't work. For years, Holmes had been misleading investors, FDA officials, and her own employees. When Carreyrou, working at the Wall Street Journal, got a tip from a former Theranos employee and started asking questions, both Carreyrou and the Journal were threatened with lawsuits. Undaunted, the newspaper ran the first of dozens of Theranos' articles in late 2015. By early 2017, the company's value was zero and Holmes faced potential legal action from the government and her investors. In Bad Blood John Carreyrou tells the story of Theranos, and encourages us to consider the possible repercussions of our blind faith in a small group of brilliant individuals. PRAISE FOR BAD BLOOD "A dazzling story of deception in Silicon Valley. . .It is a tale of heroic cupidity on a scale that made the very best and the very brightest look like the very, very foolish . . . You will not be able to put this book down." Washington Post "Chilling . . . Reads like a West Coast version of All the President's Men." New York Times Book Review "Carreyrou presents the scientific, human, legal and social sides of the story in full. Although some of it was previously reported in his extensive coverage, he unveils many dark secrets of Theranos that have not previously been laid bare." Nature "His [Carreyrou's] unmasking of Theranos is a tale of David and Goliath." Financial Times

I don’t often read a lot of non-fiction, but I’m so glad I stumbled across this book. It was absolutely fantastic. Gripping throughout, and very well-written. I worked my way through this so quickly. A very good piece of investigative journalism.

Robyn Claridge

Denaiir

Extremely interesting account of the Theranos scandale which gives so many different perspectives on the whole story: the technology, the personality of the founders, the internal workings of the company (management style, secrecy) and the impact on patients, employees, and all the supporters. 
It was fantastic and I couldn't stop listening.

Sarah Schumacher

Absolutely riveting, and a great example of what journalism is supposed to be. I’ve been aware of the Theranos saga over the last couple years so I was interested to get the full scoop in long form, but wow. It was hard to put down. As in I didn’t. Highly recommended if you’re interested in Silicon Valley drama, human nature and how not to run a startup. Also recommended for those who enjoy train wrecks.

One takeaway I want people to pay attention to is how risky it is to rely on the knowledge of someone else when it comes to technical/scientific processes or devices. It’s crazy that with all the red flags about feasibility it took so long for people to catch on to the fact this device could not possibly do what she claimed it could do. On the other hand, I work with small businesses in a technical space and I see the same semi-blind trust that can lead to wasted funds or worse. If you’re investing in a business or even just paying someone to do your website, please do enough research to understand rudimentary principles. It’s really hard to make good decisions if you don’t understand at least some of the technical process behind things. I also believe a competent vendor should be able to explain their product or service in layman’s terms. If they can’t, or they refuse, it’s a red flag.

This is also a rather extreme example of the importance of the business rule: “under-promise and over-deliver.” And, you know, honesty. Also that.

still flabbergasted that this happened under the nose even of Hilllary Clinton. writing this two days after she is imprisoned. 

Xin Ma

Lord Aragorn

A complete and engaging description of the rise and fall of Theranos. Great attention to detail in describing the facts. The level of deception was just astounding and it was maddening to see how many people refused to call B.S. for the fear of missing out. It was also sad to see how Theranos and its lawyers ruthlessly went after the whistleblowers like Erika Cheung and Tyler Schulz.

Madhuri jain

Following passion is really amazing thing but following it blindly leads you in the great troubles...!! could not put it down

farah

wow! what an exhilarating listen. I had never heard of Theranos but this book almost read like a thriller and I could not stop listening to it. It had a healthy amount of technical detail that gave me enough context to understand the story (although I had to assume the science that John put forth was solid). Great book and highly rec!

Savindi Jinasena

WOW I'll write more about this book later, but if I could recommend any non-fiction book this year, it would be Bad Blood. It's an incredible story which sometimes felt like could not be real for some of the absurdity of Elizabeth Holmes and Sunny Bulwani. 

Highly recommend this!

Shay

I've been following this case in the news since I heard about it a few years ago and this book fills in a lot of the gaps in the story of how Theranos and Elizabeth got busted. If it weren't for the courage and honesty of some of Elizabeth's employees its possible that a lot of harm could have been caused due to Holmes' lies. 

This is journalism at its finest.

Simao Freitas

Even after seeing the HBO documentary, this book still makes you cringe at how Theranos worked.

MK Rosencrants

** spoiler alert **
           Serious page turner that's hard to put down. Well researched and I found the similarities to America's political climate enlightening and frightening. Worthy read.

Ivy X

flew through this book—-it was so interesting and well written & the theranos scam is so interesting to see how this company got so far despite rooted in healthcare

Arturo Hernández

This is an incredible book because one could almost think of it as a very well written novel with evil characters, unethical schemes, unjustified layoffs and even provoked suicides but when you realize that all of this is the recount of a true story, something that happened literally a couple of years from now, one cannot avoid being bewildered by these facts. 

This is a must read for anyone interested in Silicon Valley, startups or damn, even criminal novels!

Haylie

I will forever be enthralled with Elizabeth Holmes's AUDACITY and Theranos lore.

Cindy Lieberman

A fascinating and engaging book that traces the rise and subsequent unraveling of Theranos, a start-up in automated blood testing. It’s a documentary but without the “why,” since the person behind it all is unable to admit her missteps and the author is a reporter, not prone to speculation. Only in the epilogue does the author (who broke the original story whilst working at the WSJ) imply the most likely reason: sociopath. 
From a family that made and lost a fortune over several generations, Elizabeth Holmes wanted from a very young age simply to “be a billionaire.” Her company’s mission had lofty goals of helping people control their medications and lead healthier lives. But when the company’s instrumentation and assays failed, she hid their shortcomings with workarounds and forgeries — putting lives at risk. 
I listened to the audiobook compulsively and recommend it highly.

Belle

Literally couldn't put this book down. I carried it everywhere for three days. Dense, but well-told and fun to read.

Emily Pauls

4.5: I highly recommend if you like investigative journalism. great reporting from john carreyrou

Bad Blood Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup

Reviews