Book Review: Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup

What an amazing story! Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou is the story of the rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes, the CEO of Theranos. Holmes had a meteoric rise with a startup that proved to be nothing more than vaporware.

All I can say is wow, wow, wow! Seeing how much money people can raise through lies and deception is fascinating. What was perhaps a great idea, a machine that could conduct hundreds of blood tests with a couple of drops of blood, proved to be impossible. Yet, through elaborate sleight of hand, Holmes bilked eager investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars based on false promises.

Inside Carreyrou’s Investigation

Bad Blood is 300 pages without notes and index, spread over 24 chapters. The author, John Carreyrou, is a journalist who broke the story of the deception. The book outlines how the company started, the insane management practices, the deceptions, and the uncovering.

When Carreyrou wrote Bad Blood, he based it on interviews of employees, email records, and inspection reports. He interviewed over 150 people. At the time of the interviews, the individuals were afraid to speak because of expensive lawsuits from Theranos. Theranos participated in a practice that I heard used by the Trump organization where they would sue someone into submission. People could not withstand the expense.

Theranos kept data from employees and fired employees rapidly under a strict nondisclosure agreement when the employees learned the truth.

An Influential Board and Unchallenged Claims

Amazingly, some very influential people sat on the company’s board. These people included former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and George Shultz, former Secretary of Defense William Perry and James Mattis, Senators Bill Frist and Sam Nunn, former Wells Fargo CEO Richard Kovacevich, litigator David Boies, and retired U.S. Navy Admiral Gary Roughead. Holmes duped all of them. No one on the board had the experience to challenge the assertions she made.

Why I Recommend Bad Blood

Bad Blood reads like a suspense thriller. Carreyrou kept me turning the pages throughout the night. I could not wait to see how it unfolded and ended.

I initially selected Bad Blood because of a Modern Mrs. Darcy reading challenge. It was necessary for me to find a book that was nominated for an award in 2018. I found this book at our local bookseller, Off the Beaten Path.

As I write this in December 2018, Bad Blood sits at #67 on the Amazon list. It is a national bestseller and winner of the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year for 2018. If you are looking for a riveting true story, check out Bad Blood.

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