# Bad Blood Author: [[John Carreyou]] ## Overview Story about the rise and fall of Theranos, a blood testing startup founded by Elizabeth Holmes which turned out to have vastly overstated the technology and fooled a large number of prominent people. She was perceived as a young visionary and often compared to Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. She reveled in this comparison and it influenced how she dressed, talked and designed the office and equipment. She did not really know much about the science herself and was unable to answer basic questions posed by experts, such as the consultant hired by Walgreen's to do due diligence. She fooled a large number of prominent and powerful people such as Gen. Mattis, Kissinger, Schulz, and a few Venture Capitalists (possibly including Marc Andressen). They all wanted to believe so badly that skepticism was left at the door. What makes this more surprising is that there were quite a few people who could point to real flaws in the story and technology both within and outside of the company, and there were no major health care VCs backing the technology. The company went to great lengths to prevent former employees from speaking out about what they saw and experienced. The saddest part of the story is the deterioration in the relationship between one of the whistleblowers and his grandfather, former Sec of State and on the board of Theranos. He didn't believe his grandson who had the evidence. The most surprising part of the story to me is probably that, early on in the story, the board had decided to get rid of her but she convinced them (somehow) to keep her on as CEO. ## Review This is a fascinating story. There are a few things I took away from it: - Perceptions can be deceiving and even the most intelligent and powerful person can be duped. In this case a long line of people thought she was the next steve jobs. Holmes cared so much about cultivating this image and put the perceptions of her above all else, allowing this to go on for so long. - There are huge barriers to unraveling a fraud even with so many whistleblowers, skeptics, and evidence. It takes great courage to stand up to those who are perpetrating it because they have much looser moral boundaries and often have powerful vested interests. The easiest thing to do is move on and forget about it. - Be skeptical. Have trust, but verify. This means being open to alternative viewpoints and don't let what you want to be true get in the way of discovering what is true. If some of the more powerful people had been more open minded to naysayers this would have never gone so far. ## Related [[Books]], [[Fraud]], [[Biotechnology]]