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Summary of Bad Blood 

4.7 . 21185 reviews

Short summary

What are you willing to do to win? Is it right to lie just to appear good to people? Are you willing to take risks to reveal an elaborate scam? Well, this summary takes you on a journey that explores all these questions and more. John Carreyrou is a French-American journalist with The Wall Street Journal and a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner. “Bad Blood” tells the inside story of the breathtaking rise and fall of a multibillion-dollar startup, Theranos. The story revolves around the CEO, Elizabeth Holmes, who threatened anyone who challenged her authority. For years, she supplied false information to virtually everyone about the company, including her employees, investors, and investigators. Eventually, a former employee blew the whistle. This summary highlights the major parts of the story and draws invaluable lessons for everyone, especially people looking to start a business. “A sociopath is often described as someone with little or no conscience... Holmes fit the clinical profile... Her ambition was voracious and it brooked no interference. If there was collateral damage on her way to riches and fame, so be it.”~John Carreyrou

Table of content

  • Summary of Bad Blood
  • About the author
  • What is Bad Blood about?
  • Who should read Bad Blood
  • Topics in Bad Blood
first key point

Elizabeth Holmes had a competitive spirit from childhood

Listen the first key point
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Elizabeth Anne Holmes knew she wanted to be a successful entrepreneur. At age 7, she designed a time machine and filled up a notebook with engineering drawings. She was a straight A student in high school and got accepted into Stanford as a President’s Scholar in 2002.

Holmes lobbied her way into assisting in Channing Robertson’s research lab. Robertson was the face of Stanford’s chemical engineering department at the time. She dropped out of Stanford after returning from a summer internship at the Genome Institute of Singapore. She had spent the summer testing patient specimens obtained with old low–tech methods like syringe and nasal swabs.

Holmes wrote a patent application for an arm patch that would simultaneously diagnose medical conditions and treat them. She was determined that she could draw from her experiences in Robertson’s classes and her internship. She recruited Shaunak Roy, Robertson’s PhD student, as her first employee upon launch of the company.
Ambition is good provided it does not jeopardize the lives of others.
Holmes started off operations in Burlingame in California, but later moved to an industrial zone in Menlo Park. She leveraged on her family connections and convinced Tim Draper, a former neighbor, to invest $1 million in her firm.
Like her idol, Steve Jobs, she emitted a reality distortion field that forced people to momentarily suspend disbelief. ~ John Carreyrou
By the end of 2004, Holmes had raised $6 million from investors. After eighteen months on the job, Shaunak began to feel they were making progress. The company had launched their first prototype Theranos 1.0, grown by 23 more staff, and had been listed by the technology magazine Red Herring as the hottest start – up in the valley.

This summary explains how a company that was on the rise sank to the bottom, the pitfalls of leadership, and how truth–telling can be a lifesaver in everything we do.

Did you know? Asia was ravaged by the spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003.
second key point

The first successful Theranos prototype was created and named after Thomas Edison

Edmond Ku was sought by Holmes to take over engineering at Theranos. Ku earned himself the reputation of being a fix–it man in the valley. Signing up for Theranos was the biggest challenge Ku encountered as he crossed fields to work on Medical devices.
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third key point

Elizabeth Holmes was fired as CEO, but sought reelection and fired those responsible for her previous firing

fourth key point

Ramesh Balwani became the Indian General who turned up the heat at Theranos

fifth key point

Elizabeth Holmes engaged in legal bouts with the Fuisz family while she was busy doctoring data and falsifying information on Theranos

sixth key point

Elizabeth Holmes hoodwinked her way into getting more money from investors and increased her worth to $5 billion

seventh key point

Richard Fuisz inadvertently made Holmes richer and more popular with an article that was supposed to smear her reputation

eighth key point

Alan Beam finally connected the dots and met a few like–minded persons who were ready to reveal the ruse Holmes and Theranos were engaged in

ninth key point

Theranos sent threatening mails trying to silence any attempt at revealing its "trade secrets"

tenth key point

Methodical and thorough research eventually revealed the truth about Theranos

eleventh key point

Conclusion

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