"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
A novel written by journalist John Carreyrou, detailing the shocking Theranos scam, where he was integral to its investigation and eventual exposure. A scam, which seems to defy logic at the magnitude at which it was perpetuated.
Theranos, a healthcare startup, professed to have invented a potentially groundbreaking technology in the medical field, a means to find the complete health history of a person using just a small amount of blood. This idea was particularly novel, as the conventional methods of testing typically needed a lot more to cover the whole range of human body tests.
Hailed as the next big thing in the healthcare industry, the company led by its young charming founder Elizabeth Holmes grew at a stupendous rate to quickly become the apple of Silicon Valley's eye. By 2013, Theranos was valued at nearly $10 billion, a staggering number. It entered into partnerships with Walgreens and Safeway to build health clinics and Elizabeth Holmes won several awards for her brilliant invention. She was backed by veteran venture capitalists like Donald L. Lucas and famous personalities like George Shultz and Henry Kissinger. It all seemed a splendid success story.
But the whole system had a major flaw. The product didn't work. The company had hoped that its pace of product development would match that of the hype it generated but it never did. There was no breakthrough technology. The idealism never came to fruition. In fact, they often resorted to outsourcing and using technology other than their own. Traditional needles were used for complicated tests rather than their fingertip prick method. Test results shared with the public were unreliable and frequently error-prone. All this was brought to light when journalist John Carreyrou of the Wall Street Journal started investigating into the matter after receiving a tip that Theranos had no product. Following a series of leads and discussions with disgruntled ex-employees, Carreyrou posted a series of articles that exposed the company and shocked the whole world.
I was aghast at dictatorship like work culture within the company and the rate at which the "good" employees (aka the people who raised their misgivings against the fraudulent and malpractices at the company) were ostracized and bullied, especially by Holmes' partner Sunny Balwani. Brilliant minds who had bought into the vision, and joined aiming to make a difference, left disgruntled and disillusioned.
I was perpetually in a state of disbelief while reading this book. It read more like fiction than non-fiction. I still can't believe how many people including famous personalities bought into Holmes' fraud idea without even verifying whether the product actually worked. A brilliant young founder with a great visionary idea. What's not to like? No wonder people were falling over themselves just to be a part of her vision. Her hypnotic cocoon of lies and deception was nearly impenetrable. It took nearly fifteen years for the scam to come to light. Wow. Just wow.
At this current time, the company has closed operations and Holmes and Balwani are facing fraud charges and looking at potential jail time.
I don't know when the lines blurred between vision and self-delusion for Elizabeth Holmes and her company, but whenever it did, there was no going back.
My rating: 4/5 stars
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