I listened to this in the car. It was good. Seemed like a good investigation that sort of took over the authors life so quite a while. Interesting

An astonishing account of youthful ambition with a technical idea that gradually transformed into a corporate monster that jeopardized the lives of its customers and its employees and hoodwinked many investors. The author reveals the inherent weaknesses of Boards of Directors of private corporations. The ebook concludes with some b&w photographs of the principal characters. This business story is unfinished as the executives of Theranos will come to trial in July 2020.

4 stars. This book came recommended to me and it was a very interesting read. Carryrou is an investigative reporter with the Wall Street Journal and he started investigating the multi-billion dollar medical start up Theranos and its CEO and mastermind Elizabeth Holmes and discovered shocking realities. This was a house of cards fronted by this charismatic and secretive woman with a star studded board and a legal team that was feared. He found the story and followed it where it led and ended up bringing down Theranos and the people who ran it, in spite of threats, surveillance, bullying and every attempt to stop him. What amazes me is how many people were taken in by Holmes and how badly she and her partner treated the staff and how long they were able to get away with this, putting people's lives at risk and making a lot of money. A very interesting read about a huge scam.

DNF - Technical

Also check out the documentary "The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley."

A stranger than fiction pager turner will keep you hooked until the last page. Exploring the life of Elizabeth Holmes and the rise and fall of her company Theranos.

Amazing, must read!

The fact that I read this book indeliberately alongside another positively mind-bending book called "The CEO Next Door", which is all about the good and bad qualities of a CEO was advantageous at the least, and opportune at best! This book showcased all those qualities of Elizabeth Holmes, the prota-antagonist of the story of Theranos that the other book painted with an extremely negative coating. Bad Blood is as much about the victory of investigative journalism as much it is about the charisma and reality-distortion-field of Holmes, about the gullability of the extremely accomplished like George Schultz and Henry Kissinger in dancing to the tunes of Theranos, about the blatant fraud of Ramesh 'Sunny' Balwani, and about the plight of all those Theranos employees who had to go through this. Kudos to WSJ's two time Pulitzer winner John Carreyrou who had previously also unmasked the Medicare scandal, for fighting all the odds and coming through positive with his Theranos' bad blood test.

The book itself is written like a highly riveting thriller, as a story unfolding more dramatically in every chapter until it's game over for Holmes. I want to add that this book is MUCH MORE than the HBO documentary that's based on this. In fact, the documentary only covered the last few chapters of this book, making it seem like Theranos EVENTUALLY tried faking its technology, while in reality, the book shows with ample proof that it was broken from the day one! The firing of its early CFO Henry Mosley who had called on its bullshit way back in 2006 in a chilling scene by Holmes herself shows Theranos had a long history of fooling investors and suppressing the whistleblowers.

One of the highlights I took from this book is the sheer number of top firms/individuals that Theranos appointed to both defend itself and to boost its image! Chiat/Day (the ad agency that created the legendary 1984 Macintosh ad), Yves Behar (considered the best designer next only to Ive), David Boies (the most feared super-lawyer who had grilled Bill Gates in a landmark lawsuit), a Board that was made of legends like Larry Ellison, Dan Lucas, Henry Kissinger, George Schultz etc, the largest investor being Rupert Murdoch himself, clients being biggies like Safeway (feel sorry for Steve Burd) ann Walgreens etc were only a few of the superstars in the Theranos pavilion. Surely, with a cast like that, no movie could flop, could it? Well, only if there was no story at all in the first place!

There were some interesting things about Theranos too, to their credit. It started out as Real Cures, and to be fair, Holmes's initial patents about the nanotainers and blood testing processes did look splendid, undoubtedly. I didn't know there was a cofounder named Shounak to Theranos. At some point, it was disappointing to read about the nepotism of Sunny Balwani who had hired a bunch of Indian yes-men whose main job was to please Sunny and Elizabeth Holmes by agreeing to all their demands. That's just plain effed up.

It will be interesting if someone writes an alternate ending story to the Theranos saga, where, after all the struggles and skepticism raised by all the opposers, Theranos succeeded with their Edison and changed the world forever for the good. Also, the book could be part of a series, as there are many such companies in the Silicon Valley that over-promise, over-raise, over-expand, and then try to fake it than make it. Wework and Clinkle are the two that come to my mind immediately, but I'm sure there are many more.

Overall, the book was an unputdownable read. I just wanted a better cover for the book, though, where the two Os of BlOOd were splattered blood drops ;)

It had been such a Cinderella story - the youngest female billionaire, whose tech start-up was going to revolutionize healthcare. Theranos had vocal support from Stanford profs, Silcon Valley royalty, and Cabinet officials (George Shultz, Jim Maddis, Henry Kissinger, Hilary Clinton) alike, but the company cut corners when it couldn't deliver. The story as told deeply by the investigative reporter who broke it, and definitely reads like a thriller!

A gripping true story about a start-up gone wrong, and about how the power of influence may sustain an idea longer than is warranted.