Random House Books for Young Readers Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup

Bellissima lettura estiva: libro interessante, l’ho divorato durante le vacanze. In inglese ancora meglio! Very enjoyable reading. The story itself is incredible - you wouldn’t believe if it wasn’t a true one! The author knows how to make you stay stuck on every page. Ideal reading on the beach :)

This is a very engaging read and I can recommend this book to those who have yet to read it. One vital piece is missing though ... statements from the protagonist herself. She declined to give her own account of what actually transpired and her true motivations. When did the falsehoods begin? And why? Elizabeth Holmes is certainly adept at selling ice to Eskimos. But even so, how did experienced investors such as Tim Draper, Larry Ellison, Rupert Murdoch, Carlos Slim, and the Walton family among others get conned so easily? And how did her professor at Stanford get taken in by her? How did the Theranos board with illustrious names such as Henry Kissinger (former US Secretary of State), Jim Mattis (retired Marine Corps four-star general), George Shultz (former US Secretary of State), Richard Kovacevich (former CEO of Wells Fargo), William Perry (former US Secretary of Defense), and William Foege (former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) get hoodwinked? Why and how did corporate governance fail? The reasons for all these are not truly explored but despite this, Bad Blood is certainly a gripping tale where greed and "fear of missing out" (FOMO) met with hubris and deceit. The tale also points to the fallibility and/or vulnerability of our minds/reasoning. Often times, we believe what we want to believe and ignore all evidence to the contrary. We become even more gullible when confirmation bias is present. Rest assured. Investors and venture capitalists will learn nothing from this episode. History will repeat itself somewhere and sometime in the near future.

As a medical laboratory scientist VERY familiar with this lab diagnostic industry, I was SHOCKED beyond words at how Ms Holmes was able to convince so many for so long that she had invented a unicorn in lab medicine. I've been in the biz for 45 years and usually use venous drawn blood samples. However we have used fingerprick blood collection (or heels on premis and newborns) to get blood samples to perform basic heamtology and chemistry tests. 'No way Jose', given the different anticoagulants needed for various tests could all these tests be performed on one drop (5 ml) of blood...period...full stop. Ms Holmes was one heck of a salesperson though and using a similar ptich as Bernie Madoff did with 'get on board now with all THESE bright rich people ' she perpetuated the FOMO mindset that so many fall victim to....and they did...to the very last one. Mad Dog Mattis, Henry Kissinger, Larry Ellison to name just a few. Do I feel sorry for the rich and famous who lost upwards of $100 million each? No. Do I feel sorry for the harm done to patients, doctors ? You bet...'First do no harm' is the very basis of the Hypocratic oath. I even feel bad for the CEOs of Walgreens and Safeway who, in an effort to be at the leading edge, got duped big time. The author, a respected Wall Street Journalist, dumbed down the lab medicine verbage part so that I believe even a reader completely unfamiliar with the actual science, could easily follow the bread crumb story line in the story. We've all had blood tests drawn and have a basic understanding of the process. Go to doctor, get a requistion, get blood drawn which goes to the 'lab' and results are transmitted to your doctor with high and low values that are concerning being flagged as out of normal range. In Canada, we have universal health care so don't 'pay' for 99.9% of these tests. In the US however, the cost can be exorbitant whether covered with extended insurance or private pay. THAT was the motivation behind Ms Holme's 'invention' ---to save money, make access to tests easy and without needing a doctor's requisition AND so patients could access their results. When the story narrative changes to the first person in the last quarter of the book , it becomes even more interesting. Thank goodness for whistle blowers Erika Cheung and Tyler Schultz who came forward to support the Missouri pahtologist blogger with his concerns which caught the eye of the author John Carryerou. I hope a movie can be made of this fascinating story to reach an even wider audience and everyone can watch and learn that 'if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is'. Mothers' wise words ring true once again.

No sólo la recopilación y el trabajo periodístico hacen que este libro valga la pena. También, es una excelente guía para empleados, entrepreneurs y empresarios sobre que no hacer en un ambiente laboral. Temas como el "burnout", "bossing", liderazgo, lealtad y la delgada línea que hay entre cada uno de ellos, se puede encontrar durante el relato de esta historia, que a veces pareciera una novela y no un fragmento de la historia real.

I missed this book when it launched, but Alex Gibney's excellent 2019 HBO doucmentry 'The Inventor: Out for blood in Silicon Valley' prompted my purchase. Carryrou's book covers three and a half years of investigation into Theranos, its founder Elizabeth Holmes and her meteoric rise and spectacular fall in the obsessive pursuit of a dream. Its a fascinating read and Carryrou uses his research to tell the story from the beginning. The story of his investigations as a Wall Street Journal reporter follows the cronological order of events and is documented towards the end of the book. Essentially, Elizabeth Holmes developed a start-up in Silicon Valley where she attempted to develop a device which could provide multiple blood test analyses for a range of conditions and diseases in a box not much larger that a large bread-bin. For the user only a small pinprick of blood was required to complete all these tests. This would be a game changer. Some day, every home could have one and for a small charge could carry out blood tests and have them analysed almost immediately, providing early warning of developing conditions. What's not to like? Nothing it seemed. What makes this book so fascinating, as well as the central characters and story, are the themes it explores such as: Greed and denial The historty of Silicon Valley start-ups is one where investors always try and get in at the beginning of potentially novel ideas and make a killing. Think Google, Facebook and Uber. Two things drive this. The idea and the confidence/ expertise/drive of those taking it forward. In the case of Theranos Elizabeth Holmes force of personality outweighed any doubts about the concept or the execution. However at the time she started Theranos, she was 19 and a Stanford dropout with no experience in blood testing whatsoever, beyond a grand idea and good connections. Holmes exerted an almost Svengali like hold of the people in her orbit. This is partly to do with her physical appearance. Tall; striking blue unblinking eyes; dessed in black turtle necks (a la Steve Jobs) and speaking in a baritone voice. Supremely confident in both her idea and herself she managed to persuade and recruit a Board of former ex- Government Cabinet members; a 4 star General (Jim Mattis of Trump fame) and big name investors, who blinded by either the promise of the idea or the money to be made from it, were sufficiently incurous as to seek the detail of how this invention actually worked. People and organisations such as Walgreens were happy to put hundreds of millions of dollars investment into Theranos without demanding independent expert due diligence of the product. At the time of Theranos's demise it was valued as a private company at $9bn, with Holmes's share of that valuation at $4.5. Up to that point no investor in Theranos had seen the inner working of the product or questioned the fabulous claims made for it. Neither had any member of her company Board. Secrecy and lies Holmes and her senior executive partner were secretive to the point of paranoia over their idea. Two reasons for this. First they were genuinely concerned about their ideas being stolen, but as time went on and they could not get their invention to work the secrecy hid a raft of corner cutting, false promises and outright lies as to how the equipment was performing. Only those in Theranos working on the project could see how far from the truth the claimes Holmes made for the product and its readiness to market actually were. Some turned a blind eye while those with professional or ethical concerns were either fired or left, all under rigourous confidentiality clauses. This secrecy coupled with an agressive management style also stifiled the creative initiative of the Theranos team. Knowledge was power and developers were deliberately siloed to ensure they only worked on their own area so the ability to share thinking across the firm was severly limited. Weaponising the law What I found perhaps most shocking of all is the way the agressive use of the threat of litigation is used to force compliance, especially against those who cannot financially afford to fight their corner. The lawyers who command the most fees are the legal pit bulls of the industry. Holmes spares no expense in protecting her secrets and covering her lies with the determined use of agressive legal firms and the threats of legal action to force whistleblowers to keep silent. This extends to Carryrou as well. Of the $900m raised by Holmes in her third funding round, $300m went on lawyers fees! Regulatory incuriousity The FDA and other regulators seemed broadly incurious about the claims for this machine and remained so until things started to go badly wrong when what was essentially an idea at prototype stage went live to the public. The degree to which private companies can avoid such scrutiny is alarming. The debate is still ongoing as to whether Holmes deliberately misled or had sociopathic tendencies. The story is not over. She is now charged with alleged Federal and SEC crimes which carry up to 20 years in prison. I highly recommend this book, which I think will become a textbook on leadership, governance failure and greed.I also recommend Gibney's HBO documentary which brings to life the people and events in the book, not least Elizabeth Holmes herself. It also adds visual detail on the development of the blood testing device in the way Carryrou's book can not. Hope this is helpful.