Book Summaries - Summary of BAD BLOOD--Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup( Based on John Carreyrous book)

SUMMARY

BAD BLOOD

Secrets and Lies in a

Silicon Valley Startup

JOHN CARREYROU

Book Summaries

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THERANOS: A TALE OF DESTRUCTIVE AMBITION

T he story of Elizabeth Holmes, the young female founder of the allegedly revolutionary Silicon Valley start-up, Theranos, is a narrative of how a single persons ambitions and blind determination; goals that are not backed by necessary technical know-how can lead to a quagmire so devastating, that it almost leaves peoples lives in its wake. The tale of Theranos is a an account of corruption, mismanagement and undue workplace harassment. The story of Theranos is an eye-opener as to how believing in people whose dreams you dont understand can have incredibly disastrous consequences. And I am about to put in the picture of this tale.

Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of Theranos was born into the upper middle class family of Christian and Noel Holmes in the early 80s. Lizs brother who was named after his father and grandfather, Christian, was born one and a half years after the little girl who was going to eventually begin one of the biggest scandals ever in Silicon Valleys history. Lizs father, Christian, worked with Government agencies like the US Agency for International Development and the United States Department of State for the better part of his career. Elizabeth Holmes had an even more impressive pedigree in persons of Charles Louis Fleischmann, Elizabeths Hungarian immigrant ancestor who founded the famous Fleischmann Yeast company, and Doctor Christian Holmes, another ancestor who established the University of Cincinnati Medical School and Cincinnati General Hospital a little over a century ago. Elizabeth was a fiercely determined young woman who knew how to use every single resource at her disposal to her personal advantage. Theranos board members recall Liz referring to these two men who she barely knew as her family who had passed on brilliant medical and entrepreneurial genes onto her. She was as eloquent in every single board meeting or pitch as she was convincing. Elizabeth Holmes was truly an unusual woman.

Liz spent the early years of her life in Washington DC, where her dad worked before the Holmeses moved to Houston, Texas in Elizabeths early teens. Right from her formative years, friends and family had noticed an intense competitive streak in Elizabeth. She was a very obstinate child who always wanted everything to be centered around her. On several occasions, Noel Holmes, Elizabeths mother would take Liz and Chris to Florida where the kids Uncle and Aunt lived. There, Liz would play Monopoly with Chris and David, Lizs cousin who was three-and-a-half years younger than Liz. During these games, Elizabeth would make risky business decisions and still beat her adversaries. In the rare event that the calculating young girl lost, shed fly into a fit of rage and slam the Monopoly board on the ground, obstinately refusing to be placated.

When the family moved to Houston, Liz joined a prestigious high school there. Liz was a beautiful teenager, but she wasnt exactly the High School Queen. She was quite socially awkward and seemed to prefer her own company. She also struggled with an eating disorder at the time, further complicating the young girls social problems. In her sophomore year, Liz decided to be extraordinarily focused on what really mattered and stopped moping about her social life. She threw herself fully into her academics and never allowed anything to distract her. Since she was naturally smart, her hard work paid off a great deal. With every passing semester, her grades got better, and she never failed to be a straight-A student. As Liz progressed with High School, she eventually began to get over her social awkwardness and eventually dated the son of one of Houstons most famous orthopedic surgeon. Since Lizs father worked at the Agency for International Development once, he understood the great importance of being multilingual in Americas modern capitalist society, so he got an expert Chinese teacher to tutor Liz on Mandarin. Eventually, Elizabeth decided she wanted to enrol with Stanfords Mandarin programme that involved a trip to Beijing, the Chinese capital. Normally, the Stanford Mandarin programme was designed for Stanford students, but the tutors found Elizabeth to be proficient enough in Chinese to join the programme.

It was from this Stanford Mandarin programme that Elizabeths interest in Stanford University had been ignited. She wasnt entirely sure what she wanted to study yet, but she knew two things- she wanted to be rich, and she wanted to make a lasting impact on the world. She understood that advancements in science, technology, and computer studies were currently revolutionizing the world and she wanted to be a notable part of that change. She already looked up to two brilliant Stanford Ph.D. students who were beginning to make waves with a little start-up that was supposed to be an all-encompassing Search Engine. The students were naming their little start-up Google.

After months of brooding on the subject, Elizabeth decided that she wanted to be an expert in biotechnology. It was the perfect route to help her leave indelible footprints on the sands of time while amassing a fortune, of course. She reasoned that if she could study hard and come up with a breakthrough that helped use technology to revolutionize healthcare for good, her name would remain imprinted in the hearts of many and the books of history forever. Leaving a brilliant legacy behind and touching lives with her work was extremely important to Elizabeth. At strategic positions in their Houston home hung several pictures of her father, an unsung hero, helping in his own little ways to change the world. There was a picture, for instance, of her father participating in the Mariel boatlift of 1980, a rescue operation that helped about a hundred thousand Cubans and Haitians migrate into the US in the midst of the hellish chaos their native countries were in. These pictures constantly reminded Elizabeth that she had a legacy to not only live up to but surpass.

In the year 2002, Elizabeth gained an admission to study Chemical Engineering at the renowned Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. Liz had decided that a degree in Chemical Engineering would serve as a powerful foundation, upon which a glamorous future in biotech could be built. She was admitted as a Presidents scholar, an accolade that entitled Liz to a Three thousand dollar grant to pursue her intellectual interests in Stanford. All through her freshman year at college, Liz remained dedicated to her studies and committed to her dreams. She met Professor Channing Robertson, a middle-aged professor of Chemical Engineering with a boisterous personality and a lifestyle peculiar to the younger generation. Professor Robertson took Lizs Intro to Chemical Engineering class, and they got close as Liz would constantly see him to ask questions about his class. It helped that Robertson was quite jovial and approachable. Liz also had the opportunity to meet Roy Shanuak, a Ph.D. student under Robertson. Shanuaks area of research involved the enzymes contained in Laundry detergents.