Date: 25 November 2018
Location: Joyce
Almost all of the Happy Bookers met at Joyce’s to discuss John Carreyrou’s powerful, non-fiction book, Bad Blood. Carreyrou, reporter for the Wall Street Journal, wrote the original Journal articles that led to the downfall of Theranos, one of the darling companies in Silicon Valley.
Theranos was founded and led by Stanford dropout, Elizabeth Holmes. The company’s key product was a blood-testing device that could perform a large number of critical blood tests using a single drop of blood from a finger prick. With a Board of Directors including such luminaries as George Schultz, Henry Kissinger, Sam Nunn, General James Mattis and others, the company once had a valuation of $9B. Elizabeth Holmes was declared to be the wealthiest female entrepreneur ever; she was featured in many of the leading financial journals; and she frequently appeared with prominent politicians, including the Clintons and the Obamas.
The problem was that the equipment did not work, and all of the performance claims were blatant lies. Nevertheless, Holmes was able to repeatedly convince companies and investors of her equipment’s capabilities, and she continued to do so until Carreyrou wrote his articles exposing the sham.
Most, but not all, of us enjoyed the book, which Carreyrou presented in an interesting manner. The first two-thirds of the book described how Holmes and her lover, second-in-command Sunny Balwani, set up and ran the company. The narrative contains a lot of details, which probably was necessary but began to get a little tiring. However, the last part of the book is written in first person and describes the action after Carreyrou learned of the Theranos misdeeds and began working on his stories. The book now reads almost like a thriller, with Holmes pulling out all of the stops to intimidate employees and prevent Carreyrou from publishing his articles. What a powerful and interesting story.
After a nice discussion, we had another fine meal, with Joyce’s excellent chili – perfect for a cold November evening.
—Bob