Bad Blood, by John Carreyrou

RATING

1 star

N/A = good but not on the scale

1 star = perspective supplementing

2 stars = perspective influencing

3 stars = perspective altering

SHORT SUMMARY(272 words or less)

I feel kind of bad giving this book one star, because it actually was a compelling read.  The author broke the Theranos story for the WSJ, which led to the dramatic downfall of one of Silicon Valley’s biggest con stories.  I gave it one star mainly because there was so much pop-culture overload at the time I read this.  An HBO documentary, a few podcasts, a bunch of articles, etc.  It basically saturated my interest in the story, but the book or author isn’t to blame.

Basically, this book is about how Elizabeth Holmes was able to con her investors, customers, employees, the media, and everyone else on her “groundbreaking” blood testing technology.  The idea was that Theranos, Holmes’ company, would be able to deliver wide reaching blood and DNA tests from a single drop of blood.  In actuality, her technology never worked, she kept up a facade and smoke and mirrors on the technology before it came crashing down.  She was able to pull this off because (1) she was well connected with legacy Valley investors who gave her credibility and (2) she was able to exploit Silicon Valley’s culture of “move fast and break things,” when there are inherent limitations in biotechnology to moving fast and breaking things.  For a while, everyone rode the train, but after the author’s reporting in the WSJ questions were asked, Feds came in to investigate, and Holmes’ net worth went from $4.5 billion to $0.

Takeaways?  Don’t believe everything you see?  There will always be con artists?  Ambition can conflate the desire to be a pioneer and the desire to be well known?