Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup

by John Carreyrou

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Theranos raised more than $700 million on a blood test that never worked, and the company knew it. Carreyrou, whose reporting broke the story, shows you how it stayed alive anyway: third-party machines passed off as its own, a board of famous names, and a legal campaign against the employees who spoke up.

Core ideas
  • Never close: The core claim never worked at the promised scale, so the company ran commercial machines and called them its own.
  • The board: Kissinger, Mattis, Shultz and Nunn lent credibility without the medical expertise to check the science.
  • The whistleblowers: Tyler Shultz and Erika Cheung paid a real price, and if you've watched a company go after its critics, you'll recognize the playbook.
Published2018
Pages339
ISBN9781524731656

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