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(as of Aug 09, 2024 05:17:22 UTC – Details)
By: John Carreyrou (Author)
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup
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Price: $0.00
(as of Aug 09, 2024 05:17:22 UTC – Details)
By: John Carreyrou (Author)
Jim Talbot –
Brilliant. Riveting.
A masterful, detailed analysis of corruption and personal hubris. I have watched all of the SEC deposition tapes of both Holmes and Bulwani, multiple times. I would advise anyone to read the book, then watch the tapes which you can find by Googling their names and SEC. They are also up on YouTube.I read this book on Kindle and read it straight through. Highest recommendation.
bigheadted –
Excellent Read, but It Ain’t Over Yet
A unicorn in the investment world is a startup with a massive valuation, which always felt like an insult to entrepreneurs building very real products and services. A unicorn, in the rest of the world, is a mythical creature that doesn’t existed so I guess they finally got it right when Theranos was called a unicorn. Like Ringling Brothers, they strapped a horn on a goat and marketed it as a real thing. And everyone bought it.Bad Blood was a fast and exciting read, and relatively easy, worth mentioning because there’s a reasonable amount of science in there. As everyone surely knows, this is the story of a company that lied and the idiots who believed them to the tune of billions of dollars. But ultimately, it’s a book about incompetence, and just how many people in this world are completely incompetent and unqualified to do their jobs. At least we can take comfort that investigative journalists are fairly competent and can reveal the incompetence of others. Theranos should never have gotten as far as they did and was only able to do so because of negligence all around.And while I appreciate that I got to read the details of this insane story at this point in time, we’ll need a sequel in a few years once the dust settles. This case is still ongoing and therefore the ending is still open, which made the end of this book feel somewhat unsatisfactory. I am especially interested to learn how the good people in this story, the ones with sense and ethics, ended up. I want to know if Rochelle sued Holmes’ turtleneck off. I want to know who was behind the surveillance. I want to know what excuses the failed Board members have come up with. I want to know what excuses the VCs came up with. And I want Holmes and Sunny to get what’s coming to them.Commentary:Most non-fiction books are actually about incompetence. True crime, history, war, these books are filled with people who should never have been given the jobs they have, and Bad Blood is no exception. Obviously the leadership of Theranos were abject failures. Their Board of Directors were a bunch of doddering, dotty seniors who led a company that has a technology they never understood, and who completely failed in their duty to manage and monitor their CEO on behalf of their shareholders. The Venture Capitalists did not perform sufficient due diligence nor did they properly monitor their portfolio. We know they were too busy drooling over the valuation and pre-counting their investment carry to bother to look into the lies. Have you ever met a finance guy who is a blood science expert? In 20 years in finance, I have never met one, and yet investors believed them when they say a blood testing technology works without a shred of evidence. So the investors failed as well, and continue to fail by giving them a pass on their negligence. The regulators were also a bit incompetent, though I suspect their SOPs prevent them from being as effective as they can be. Nor should regulators be susceptible to pressure from politically connected investors and Board Members, but they are. US military leadership, including Sensible Dog Mattis formerly known as Mad Dog Mattis, also proved themselves to be incompetent and biased to the extent that they’re willing to put our soldiers’ health at risk. Theranos’s corporate partners, who stuck with Theranos after years of continuous failure to deliver on their promises, were hilariously incompetent. I am very grateful that the states, and not the idiot pharmacies, set the standards for patient care in their stores. Anyone still in favor of deregulating the medical field and taking power away from the FDA should exclusively use Theranos testing devices for their family’s health decisions.The most inspiring characters in this book were the youngsters like Erika and Tyler, who came out of college with a strong sense of personal ethics that they refused to give up, regardless of what the “grownups” told them to do. Tyler stood strong even as his own grandfather, Secretary of State George Schultz, tried to muscle him with lawyers, but Tyler showed grandpa what honor looks like. I’d hire those kids in a NY minute just based on their conviction, and I hope neither this experience nor any other breaks down their will and sense of right and wrong.Will Silicon Valley and venture capital learn from this mistake? Nope! The fact is that they’re still showing returns to their investors who do not care how the money is earned, as long as there are no legal or tax ramifications. But I am especially interested to how pensioners feel about VCs using CalPERS funds to invest in scams like Theranos, since the risk is much greater for them than your average venture investor. Remember Moral Hazard? Silicon Valley doesn’t.
Joao de Almeida –
Assunto muito interessante e realmente eu nao conseguia parar de ler para saber como seria o final ! Realmente a empresa tinha um produto muito avancado que poderia mudar os exames de sangue de uma maneira moderna e pratica , porem nao conseguiram produzir os aparelhos que funcionassem perfeitamente ! Porem esses problemas nao eram informados aos investidores e tambem ao usuarios , pois isso impediria a empresa de crescer como como a maioria das startups do Vale do Silicio ! Assunto realmente muito serio , real e bem escrito ! Recomendo !,
Linda –
Super Urlaubslektüre, war ein kurzweiliges Lesevergnügen.Die Story ist packend und obwohl man weiÃ, wie es ausgeht, baut sie sehr gut Spannung bis zum Finale (der Veröffentlichung von Carreyrous Artikel) auf. Unglaublich, wie viele Mitarbeitenden bei Theranos verschlissen wurden und sich vollkommen überarbeitet haben, um das Schiff zu retten. Bei vielen ging es nicht gut aus. Das nimmt man Elizabeth Holmes (neben dem Betrug der Investoren natürlich) beim Lesen sehr übel. Was für eine schreckliche Chefin.Man lernt auch viel über die medizinische Technik hinter Bluttests.
Tim de Hoog –
Reads like a thriller. Excellent analysis and behind the scenes of Theranos. A hard lesson in what greed, corruption and blind faith can do. Also shows you how vital a free and independent media is to bring fraud like Theranos to justice.
Client Kindle –
Un livre passionnant qui se lie comme un roman et qui dévoile bien la réalité peu reluisante d’une entreprise que tout le monde voyait comme le nouveau Apple (surtout sa fondatrice…). 2 questions en suspens: a-t-elle trompé ses investisseurs et ses potentiels “clients” (c’est à dire des patients) volontairement ou a t elle été prise malgré elle dans un tourbillon qu’elle ne contrôlait plus ? L’auteur n’a pas trop de doutes, chacun se fera son opinion. Autre question beaucoup plus intéressante à mon goût : de toutes les startups qui promettent monts et merveilles, combien cachent des cadavres dans leurs placards, comme Theranos? On aura malheureusement pas toujours des John Carreyrou pour le raconter si bien.
Natarajan Mahalingam –
One of the top-notch pieces of investigative journalism by John Carreyrou in recent times, the book is a culmination of 3.5 years of John’s investigation and reporting on Theranos, the now defunct startup by Elizabeth Holmes. Though I had wind of the type of problems the startup ended up with over the years through news articles, this book encapsulates in precisive details, the events right from the beginning until mid-2018, when the company was dissolvedIf books like The Lean startup, Zero to One, The Innovation Stack, and The Right it showed us how startups and entrepreneur’s drive an idea or initiative to success, Bad Blood brings out examples of how not-to run a startup, across technical, people-centric, and impact-centric angles. Just like I recommended the former books, I would also recommend Bad Blood as a book that warns any prospective entrepreneur on pitfalls and mindsets that would lead to downfall in a startup cultureJohn’s writing literally transports you, as an invisible viewer, as the events get recorded and at one point in time, you will feel, why you couldn’t have stopped what Elizabeth Holmes was trying to do to the characters in the book. John’s integrity and moral compass show through, even as he is tried to be intimidated by Theranos lawyers at crucial points in the story. His ethical stance against letting go of sources and withstanding fire from the dragon’s mouth are inspiring, to say the least. John’s character descriptions and the capturing of emotions all across the book is one of the strong points of his writing that help readers to visualize the characters in their minds vividlyAll said, I am happy that I had the chance to read the book, before the movie potentially in the works gets released, with Jennifer Lawrence set to play Elizabeth Holmes (at the time of my writing this)