Elizabeth spoke sincerely and enthusiastically about the mission.So they partnered with Theranos to roll outĮlizabeth Holmes practiced charismatic techniques to win over supporters. Partners like Walgreens and Safeway saw a way to compete against competitors like CVS, and to rejuvenate their financials.They wanted to celebrate a brilliant female innovator in an age of female empowerment. The public saw a thrilling female founder who could be the next Steve Jobs.Patients and their families saw better decisionmaking and less pain.The medical testing market is huge - allowing patients to test at home, and using the resulting data to inform medical decisions, makes it even bigger.

Investors saw a huge financial opportunity.

Theranos had a vision people wanted to believe in - “detect diseases early so no one has to die unnecessarily.” All types of stakeholders saw what they wanted to see in it, allowing large suspension of disbelief. When asked what she wanted to be at 10 year old, she answered “a billionaire.” It has to start with Elizabeth Holmes, who dreamed big. We’ll focus on the themes of why so many sane, professional people were completely taken in and ignored the warning signs until it was too late.

What finally led to Theranos’s downfall?.

How was the deception allowed to continue?.

Even very sophisticated investors, whose job is to sniff out these exact situations, fell completely for the fraud until it was exposed.īeyond just detailing the chronology of the story, our Bad Blood summary covers three major questions: The story is an incredible demonstration of the weaknesses of human psychology.

It covers all known history of how Theranos started, maintained its lies, and fell. 1-Page Summary 1-Page Book Summary of Bad Bloodīad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup is written by John Carreyrou, the very Wall Street Journal reporter who first exposed Theranos.

Bad blood startup