Mini Review: Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup
As many have watched the surprisingly boring HBO special on Theranos, I wanted to share my review of the book that uncovered it all!
Details
Title — Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup
By — John Carreyrou
Summary
If you’ve not watched the documentary, read the articles or the many YouTube summary videos online. In short, a startup called Theranos whose goal was to run cheap blood tests from a drop of blood… was basically faking it.
Doesn’t sound that interesting? Well at one point Theranos was valued at more than Uber, had US generals and secretaries of state on its board and was in Walgreens. The results were so bad, that people could have died from them. Oh, and the founder Elizabeth Holmes was heralded as the next Steve Jobs.
The story follows the bio of Elizabeth, the story of the founding, and a number of other stories that interweave in and out of the whole picture. About 2/3s of the way through it becomes a first-person perspective, as you realise that the writer of the book was the writer that first uncovered the story (and published it in the Wallstreet Journal). Then it becomes almost a legal thriller, as Theranos tries to shut him down.
Things I liked
The small stories of the different players was a great way to understand their motivations before they came into the story. I particularly enjoyed the family friend who literally helped the CIA take down someone who had wronged him!
The switching story to the first-person perspective was really interesting and made you even more invested in the characters who felt more real.
Things I didn’t like
Honestly, I felt it was overly harsh on Elizabeth. Of course, bad results could have lead to a number of huge health issues for people, but she was coming at it originally from a good place.
As a startup founder too, I felt the pressures she was under and the desire to do a bit of ‘fake it till you make it’ — easier with software like ours, where a bug means a document doesn’t show correctly, but still it feels like it could have worked, and she was trying to do all she could to succeed.
There was definitely a bias against her at the start, which makes sense as it was written from the perspective of a reporter who broke the story and was harassed to change it.
Favourite Quotes
“She slept four hours a night and popped chocolate-coated coffee beans through the day to inject herself with caffeine” — I love that idea but it’s written like it’s evil!
“Elizabeth was borrowing behaviours and management techniques described in Walter Isaacson’s biography of the late Apple Founder Steve Jobs” — I love that book.
“The investment brought in another $96 million to Theranos’s coffers and valued it at a stunning $9 billion”
“President Obama appointed her a U.S. ambassador for global entreprenership”
“Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing”
“One notable exception was Rupert Murdoch” (he sold his stock back for a huge loss as a tax benefit… also he refused to help her with the press!)
“A sociopath is often described as someone with little or no conscience. I’ll leave it to the psychologists to decide whether Holmes fits” — Jeezz… So dark/biased.
Who is this good for?
Anyone that loves a good thriller, loves learning about startups and also loves complaining about Silicon Valley’s approaches to everything (“we can solve anything” :S). Definitely a must for founders :).
Overall I’d give this an 8/10, again it felt a little biased to me, but overall the story is amazing and well written.
Thanks for reading, let me know if there are additional sections you’d like for these reviews!
Charles Douglas-Osborn
CEO — Haystack (Search all your cloud files, apps and documents in one place, saves you 20 minutes a day and it's free)
