Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup

John Carreyrou

May 2018 · Pan Macmillan

About this ebook

‘I couldn’t put down this thriller’ – Bill Gates

Winner of the Financial Times/McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award.

The shocking true story of the breathtaking rise and collapse of Theranos, the multibillion-dollar biotech startup founded by Elizabeth Holmes, written by the prize-winning journalist who first broke the story and pursued it to the end.

Seen as the female Steve Jobs, Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes was a brilliant Stanford dropout whose startup ‘unicorn’ promised to revolutionize the medical industry with a machine that would make blood testing significantly faster and easier. Backed by wealthy investors, Theranos sold shares that valued the company at more than $9 billion.

There was just one problem: the technology didn’t work . . .

Despite threats of legal action, brave whistleblowers started to talk. They revealed a culture of intimidation and secrecy, technology that repeatedly failed, results sent to real patients that were incorrect but upon which life-changing medical decisions were being made, with devastating consequences.

The riveting story behind The Dropout, in Bad Blood, John Carreyrou investigates the biggest corporate fraud since Enron, a tale of ambition and scandal set amid the bold promises of Silicon Valley.

'A tale of corporate fraud and legal browbeating that reads like a crime thriller' - The 10 Best Nonfiction Books, TIME

Ratings and reviews

Great read. Been following the news articles, so it's been a fun journey seeing how it all came together.

Must read! We'll put together with great pace.

the real world is a very scary place! excellent book.

About the author

John Carreyrou is a member of the Wall Street Journal’s investigative reporting team. He joined the Journal in 1999 and has been based in Brussels, Paris, and New York for the paper. John has covered a number of topics during his career, ranging from Islamist terrorism when he was on assignment in Europe to the pharmaceutical industry and the US healthcare system. His reporting on corruption in the field of spine surgery led to long prison terms for a California hospital owner and a Michigan neurosurgeon. His reporting on Theranos, a blood-testing startup founded by Elizabeth Holmes, was recognized with a George Polk award, and is chronicled in his book Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup.

Born in New York and raised in Paris, he currently resides in Brooklyn with his wife and three children.