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

1st August 2019
Bad Blood book cover

Introduction

Bad blood is a book about the rise and fall of Theranos and its founder, Elizabeth Holmes. Theranos was an infamous blood-testing company. At one time, it was valued as a unicorn. However, it was exposed to be faking its claim of devising blood tests that needed very small amounts of blood, jeopardising the lives of patients in the process.


Author

John Carreyrou is an investigative reporter at the Wall Street Journal. He has won Pulitzer Prize twice before his investigative work on Theranos. The investigation of Theranos won him George Polk, Gerald Loeb and Barlett & Steele awards.


Content

This book has a total of 24 chapters, complete with a prologue and an epilogue. Each chapter has a main theme and provides a glimpse into the dubious operation of Theranos and the author’s investigation.


Review

It took me less than a day to finish this book. The author writes this book in a way that resembles novel. The pace is fast and the story is riveting. It makes me want to know what happened next.

In this book, the author exposes how Theranos was managed. It is definitely not a healthy work environment. There are secrecy, intimidations, personal flaws of the leaders, death, threats and lawsuits. All these dramas in a startup that claimed it is going to change the world.

This book shows how a smart and charismatic person can trick others to believe in her. It also demonstrates how people can be coerced or forced into cooperate with the perpetrators. But there are still a few conscientious souls in this world who chose to do the right thing.

It is good to have a dream and the burning desire to realize it. Nonetheless, without a proper moral compass, everything will crumble in the end, just like what happened to Theranos and its founder now.


Quotes


Rating

3 out of 3 stars


Interested in Bad Blood?

You may get the book from Kinokuniya Malaysia through the link below*.

Get the book here

*Disclosure: The above link is Involve Asia affiliate link. Thus, I may earn a small commission when you purchase the book through this link.

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