Paperback, 339 pages
English language
Published Nov. 21, 2018 by Picador.
In 2015, Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes was widely seen as the female Steve Jobs: a brilliant Stanford dropout whose startup 'unicorn' promised to revolutionize the medical industry with a machine that would make medical blood testing significantly faster and easier. Backed by investors such as Oracle's Larry Ellison and Tim Draper, Theranos sold shares in a fundraising round that valued the company at more than $9 billion, putting Holmes's worth at an estimated $4.5 billion. There was just one problem: the technology didn't work.
For years, Holmes had been misleading investors and retail partners. The deception would lead to nearly one million false test results, some of which seriously jeopardized the health of patients.
When John Carreyrou, a reporter at the Wall Street Journal, started asking questions, both Carreyrou and the Journal were threatened with lawsuits, as were many of Carreyrou's sources. Undaunted, the newspaper ran the first …
In 2015, Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes was widely seen as the female Steve Jobs: a brilliant Stanford dropout whose startup 'unicorn' promised to revolutionize the medical industry with a machine that would make medical blood testing significantly faster and easier. Backed by investors such as Oracle's Larry Ellison and Tim Draper, Theranos sold shares in a fundraising round that valued the company at more than $9 billion, putting Holmes's worth at an estimated $4.5 billion. There was just one problem: the technology didn't work.
For years, Holmes had been misleading investors and retail partners. The deception would lead to nearly one million false test results, some of which seriously jeopardized the health of patients.
When John Carreyrou, a reporter at the Wall Street Journal, started asking questions, both Carreyrou and the Journal were threatened with lawsuits, as were many of Carreyrou's sources. Undaunted, the newspaper ran the first of dozens of Theranos articles in late 2015. By early 2017, the company's value was zero, and in March 2018, the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission charged Holmes with perpetrating 'an elaborate, years-long fraud'.
A very engaging and gripping read (or listen, for the audiobook, which I would recommend). Not much to say other than this is a really great, well-researched, and at times, suspenseful book, and well worth anyone's time.
Also pairs well with the Hulu series, The Dropout about Theranos and Holms, which takes a lot, if not all, from this book.
An expertly crafted account of the woman who girlbossed so hard she accidentally committed multiple counts of fraud and put millions of peoples health at risk.
Investigative journalism at it’s best. The book is excellent, readable, clear and logical. The question I kept asking as I read this was “What were they thinking?” When someone perpetrates a massive and clear fraud in public I am always amazed that they somehow convince themselves they won’t get caught. I don’t believe Elizabeth Holmes was a hapless victim of Sunny Balwani, or of structural sexism. it will be interesting to see what the jury thinks.
Really interesting
