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

John Carreyrou's nonfiction thriller ‘Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup’ is a compelling first-hand account of the rise and fall of multi-billion dollar venture Theranos, a company once heralded as the wave of the future in providing fast and accurate home health testing.

In the early part of the 21st century, a young and charismatic Stanford drop out named Elizabeth Holmes founded a revolutionary startup called Theranos. Theranos set forth to disrupt the medical healthcare devices industry by developing a machine that had the ability to perform accurately a large number of tests without the need for traditional needles. The blood tests results could be obtained within minutes thereby eliminating the need for tedious laboratory tests. Holmes convinced investors of her concept and her company was initially successful.

Theranos subsequently made headlines in the world of medicine generally and in the mainstream media. It was featured on television, in business magazines and seemingly everywhere. It was valued at over $10 billion and its investors included some of the world’s most powerful business moguls.

However, very soon, investigators including renowned Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou, uncovered the lies and exaggerations that Holmes had used to get investors and other partners interested in Theranos - including its false manufacturing claims, alarming safety concerns and exuberant lies about its market potential. These secrets and lies were carefully guarded by Theranos with the millions it spent on lobbyists and lawyers, even as the real story about the company's breakthrough was slowly becoming clear to the public eye.

Carreyrou's book is more than just an investigative report – it is an almost novel-like narrative that details the personal struggles of employees within the secretive company as well as the deceptions of its founder, Holmes. We learn how she had become an almost cult figure within the company, demanding loyalty while simultaneously rewarding her workers with opportunities to work on the cutting edge of medical technology.

The story slowly begins to unravel as Holmes chooses to cover up the truth – the truth that the technology was not working as planned and the burden of delivering on her promise was slowly growing too much. The truth is that, far from the claim of being cheaper and faster, the blood testing process was neither - and, worse still, its accuracy was coming into question.

A crucial element in the narrative is the level of organization and resources Holmes and her team put into keeping the lies and exaggerations from the public, particularly from the media. As Carreyrou skillfully guides the reader through his investigation, he presents in graphic detail how lies were strategically told and propagated to investors and the public.

'Bad Blood' portrays numerous themes about entrepreneurial ambition, greed, power and the challenges of running a multi-billion dollar enterprise in the tech industry. As a quasi exposé, it dives deep into the intricate machinations of the venture and the motivations of everyone involved, from the investors to the employees and the press.

Ultimately, we learn from Carreyrou's book that success in Silicon Valley comes with great ambition and at greater risk. But even then, sometimes lies and exaggerations will eventually not be enough to prevent the truth from coming out.