This book by John Carreyrou had been on my TBR list for a while. Then the trial against Elizabeth Holmes actually got under way and Carreyrou launched a podcast covering the trial and I wanted to listen to it, but figured I should probably read the book first. I chose the audiobook, which is good, and I definitely recommend it if you’ve been thinking about picking up this book and wondering if the audio version is the way to go.
The book is fascinating. It covers parts of Holmes’s childhood and early life, including how she used her family connections to get her first investors for her startup, the company’s move from smaller offices to larger, more prestigious offices, and the increased media attention on the company as it became larger and more well known.
Carreyrou never got a chance to interview Elizabeth or Sunny Balwani without lawyers present, but he did get to talk to other executives of the company, mainly those who joined the company early on and then left as soon as they realized the company couldn’t deliver on any of its promises. He also got to talk to lab technicians who worked with the machinery, ran some of the tests, and described what a literal mess the whole operation was.
While Holmes and Balwani are certainly both to blame on a personal level, Carreyrou also devotes an entire chapter to discussing the nature of Silicon Valley and how it encourages people to dream it and then be it. He provides several examples of tech companies like Apple and Microsoft promising they could provide technology they did not yet have, but there were two key differences. First of all, if they failed to deliver, they were not putting anyone’s health at risk. Second, despite the numerous comparisons made between Holmes and Steve Jobs, according to those who worked with Steve Jobs, he would listen when his engineers told him something was physically impossible. Holmes did not, at least not always. Theranos did start out being advertised as a wearable device before it became evident that was not feasible, and so they switched to the idea of the box that runs blood tests.
The other sticky point, both in the book and in the trial, is whether Holmes intended to commit fraud, or whether she really believed at some point that she could will this technology into existence. Carreyrou seems to lean towards fraud, especially since Holmes in one email to herself appears to be comparing herself to Bernie Madoff, but I’m not so sure. I can see how easy it could be to start with an idea, and then get swept up in your own marketing (Holmes does appear to be a remarkable saleswoman), not to mention the billions of dollars invested into the company and all the glowing media attention. Sources described her as nervous during some conversations about how the technology didn’t work, which I think speaks to the theory that she did not start out intending to market a product that didn’t work.
Then again, you usually don’t set up a company so that employees from different departments don’t have a chance to compare notes if you’re not intending to defraud a lot of people.
Either way, I found the book fascinating and very well written and I am definitely keeping tabs on the trial.