Kavi Reads

Non-fictions are rarely page-turners. Interesting and engrossing, sure, but whether they’re informative, biographical or describe some real event, there’s not much room for suspense, especially any outcome is usually known before you even pick up the book. This one was different. Investigative journalist, JohnCarreyrou gives a detailed account of what went on inside Theranos, a Silicon Valley darling, valued at over $10 billion and what led to its downfall in his book, Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup. This was the first time I started and finished an audiobook in a matter of three days. From the beginning, Carreyrou had me completely hooked into Theranos’s story. While, as non-fictions go, the outcome was known (Theranos ceased operations in late 2018 with its founder in a world of trouble, facing potential jail time), Carreyrou wrote the book in a way that I was constantly thinking to myself, “what happened next?”. And I kept on listening for every waking moment until I finished it.

Theranos’s story starts like a lot of famous startups. A 19-year-old college student has an idea and drops out of college to pursue it against all odds. The company promises to revolutionise the industry and the founder will stop at nothing to achieve their goal. That’s the story Theranos sold to new employees and big investors. The short version: the company promised to quickly give you a complete picture of your health using only a fingerstick of blood. Founder Elizabeth Holmes visioned a future where everyone will have one of these devices in their homes and no one will lose a loved one because of a disease that wasn’t caught early. But things started to look a bit fishy inside the big walls they put up around them.

This is where Carreyrou shined. It was incredibly fascinating to listen to the lengths Theranos went to deceive everyone through the eyes of the employees. It turned what could have been a dry account of events into a thriller, and moreover, added a personal touch to it, as I listened to employees struggle to keep a clean conscience while continuing the company’s unethical practices.

The problem at Theranos was simple: the technology never worked. Most of the testing was done either on larger machines or commercial analysers with diluted blood, often taking weeks to get results, rather than the 30 minutes Holmes promised. While the technology never worked, instead of taking a step back and spending more time on research and development to make it work, Holmes was much more focussed on her personal legacy and making sure she is seen as the visionary she considered herself.

To make sure that people don’t question her technology, her company discarded bad results and failed quality control tests, manipulated and deceived investors, threatened sceptics both inside and outside the company, conned inspectors and notable people like the then-vice president, Joe Biden. The president and COO of the company was a tyrannical bully who had no idea how any of the technology worked but constantly berated and fired employees who disagreed with him. Moreover, he was sleeping with the CEO, Holmes and they didn’t disclose their relationship to investors. Things Carreyrou described were, frankly, insane for a company, even for Silicon Valley.

Every entrepreneur exaggerates their company and products. They are here to solve a large problem and change the world. Elon Musk does it all the time. And if you fail to deliver on a smartphone app, people may get upset, but it’s not the end of the world. However, when you’re in the medical industry, the stakes get a lot bigger. When you tell a patient that they have cancer, it takes a huge emotional and financial toll of them. And if you’re wrong, that a bad outcome. If you’re wrong a lot, things can get ugly quick. When Carreyrou exposed them and the CMS came after them as a result, they had nowhere to hide.

Do you know someone that just hates seafood? They’ve never really tried much of it, but just refuse to have any. But because you love it so much, you want them to try it and show them what they’re missing out on. Once you finally convince them to try some, they get unlucky with a bad scrimp and throw up. Now, you’re standing there trying to explain how that was an outlier and if they give it another shot, they’d like it. They’re not convinced. That’s what it felt like listening to this audiobook.

As Carreyrou said, “In Elizabeth Holmes, the valley found it’s first female tech founder.” Elizabeth won over everyone she talked to using her vision and charisma. But her company was based on lies, deception and, in fact, was dangerous to patients. As Bill Gates said in his review, I hope that people don’t use it as an excuse to write off the next young woman with a big idea. The medical industry is not the most progressive industry either. I work in a Healthcare IT company and it’s hard enough to get clients to take simple new features in existing applications. And I also hope Theranos does not scare people away from next-gen diagnostics and other medical breakthroughs. Instead, Theranos should be used as a lesson for upcoming startups in Silicon Valley on how not to handle their grand visions and deliver.