Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup
My favourite read of 2018.
Secrets and Lies in Silicon Valley. Bad Blood is a gripping account of how the quest for power and success can lead to deceit and manipulation. One of the best books I have read this year.
The book is a huge success because of how it seamlessly exposes the best of human intellect and the worst of human nature.
A fast-paced and engaging read throughout like a Hollywood thriller from beginning to end.
The full inside story of the breathtaking rise and shocking collapse of Theranos the multibillion-dollar biotech start-up. Strategically, the prize-winning journalist first broke the story and pursued it to the end. Despite, pressure from its charismatic CEO and threats by her lawyers.
Elizabeth Holmes uncovered
In 2014, Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes. Chiefly, was seen as the female Steve Jobs. Accordingly, a brilliant Stanford dropout whose startup “unicorn” promised to revolutionize the medical industry. Uniquely, with a machine that would make blood testing significantly faster and easier.
The manipulation of Wall Street
Backed by investors such as Larry Ellison and Tim Draper. Essentially, Theranos sold shares in a fundraising round that valued the company at more than $9 billion. Consequently, Holmes’s was worth at an estimated $4.7 billion. However, there was just one problem. The technology didn’t work.
A riveting story of the biggest corporate fraud since Enron. Similarly, a tale of ambition and hubris set amid the bold promises of Silicon Valley.
Follow this engrossing story as it unfolds in the mainstream US media
Watch the HBO movie
Academy Award winner Alex Gibney (Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, HBO’s Emmy-winning Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief) directs a documentary investigating the rise and fall of Theranos. Notably, the one-time multibillion-dollar healthcare company founded by Elizabeth Holmes.
In 2004, Elizabeth Holmes dropped out of Stanford. Specifically, to start a company that was going to revolutionize healthcare. In 2014, Theranos was valued at $9 billion, making Holmes, who was touted as “the next Steve Jobs,” the youngest self-made female billionaire in the world. Just two years later, Theranos was cited as a “massive fraud” by the SEC, and its value was less than zero.
Drawing on extraordinary access to never-before-seen footage and testimony from key insiders. In summary, director Alex Gibney narrates a Silicon Valley tale that was too good to be true. With all the drama of a real-life heist film. Accordingly, the documentary will examine how this could have happened and who is responsible. Whilst, exploring the psychology of deception.
https://www.hbo.com/documentaries/the-inventor-out-for-blood-in-silicon-valley
Forbes profile: Elizabeth Holmes
https://www.biznews.com/global-investing/2021/12/22/elizabeth-holmes-theranos
