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1-Page Summary of Bad Blood
Overview
The following book is an in-depth look at Theranos, a Silicon Valley startup that was lead by Elizabeth Holmes. The first three quarters of the book are written from a journalistic perspective and describe how Theranos came to be, as well as its meteoric rise to fame. The final quarter of the book describes events surrounding John Carreyrou’s writing about Theranos for the Wall Street Journal.
The book begins by describing how the author was fired from her job at Theranos after she raised concerns about the company’s practices. The story then shifts to Elizabeth Holmes’ childhood and describes how that influenced her desire to make a lot of money and do good for people. It also discusses how one of the engineers who worked for Theranos became suspicious about what he saw happening there, eventually leaving his job as well.”
The rest of the story then covers Theranos’s financial growth, commercial success, and scientific struggles. It also details a string of employees who were disillusioned with the company or left it. The author considers all these elements within the context of Ian Gibbons’ suicide, Tyler Shultz’s and Erika Cheung’s attempts to warn others about their concerns, and Alan Beam’s reluctance to keep defending Theranos against complaints from unhappy doctors.
In the first section of the narrative, there are descriptions about how Sunny Balwani insisted on intense security for Elizabeth Holmes and her company; how she was able to get large companies like Walgreens and Safeway involved with her company; and how she maintained support from older male allies.
Eventually, increasing concerns about Theranos and Holmes lead a journalist to investigate them. The journalist is John Carreyrou, who writes in the first person through this book. His sources include employees of Theranos such as Sunny Balwani and Ian Gibbons. He also uses information from people outside of Theranos like Tyler Shultz and Richard Fuisz. After he prepares some articles for the Wall Street Journal using this information, he publishes those articles which eventually leads to investigations by important government agencies that reveal how bad things are at Theranos. This results in the company losing its value and reputation, as well as criminal charges against Holmes possibly being brought up by authorities.
The book ends with a brief epilogue that poses questions about Holmes’s psychology. It also proposes that she was aware of her actions throughout the process, even though it seemed like she was being controlled by others.
Section 1 – Author’s Note, Prologue, Chapter 1
The author, John Carreyrou, says that what follows is based on interviews with those involved in the situation. Some people asked to remain anonymous for privacy reasons and some quotes were taken from legal depositions or other documents. The author also notes that Elizabeth Holmes chose not to participate in this book.
Prologue: After a marketing trip to Switzerland, Henry Mosley (Theranos’ CFO) notices that not everyone is as positive about it as Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes. She dropped out of Stanford University and gathered around her experienced leaders who could help her in the company’s operations. The company was marketing a product that could revolutionize the medical industry and make investors lots of money.
When he investigates the apparent unhappiness of those who were on the marketing trip to Switzerland, Mosley learns from Shaunuk Roy, one of the company’s co-founders and a chief researcher, that they had falsified test results in order to make a successful sales pitch. Shortly after making this discovery, Mosley has a meeting with Elizabeth to discuss his concerns. At first she is cheerful and positive about him but when he brings up his concerns she accuses him of not being a team player and fires him immediately.
