In 2003, Elizabeth Holmes, a college dropout, founded Theranos, a biotech company that was revolutionize the way blood tests would be analyzed. Elizabeth had a phobia of needles, thus devised a novel idea for blood testing using only a drop or two of blood ~ a finger prick instead of a venous draw.
Elizabeth Holmes came from a wealthy and connected family. While still a student at Stanford, she took a class on controlled drug-delivery devices from Channing Robertson, a leader in the chemical engineering department at the school. She convinced him that she had a new idea for a method testing blood. She further convinced him, and many other prominent people, to serve on the Board of Trustees of a new company she would create. Over the years, her board would include such dignitaries as former Secretaries of State George Shultz and Henry Kissinger.
Using her connections, Elizabeth was quickly able to raise more than $700M from investors for her start-up company. She also convinced Walgreens drugstore and the Safeway grocery chain to invest, with the promise that they would have exclusive rights to utilize her device as a part of their wellness programs. Unfortunately, a few drops of blood were not sufficient to run the range of routine blood diagnostics. Blood tests using her devices routinely gave false results, seriously putting peoples lives in danger.
Elizabeth hired Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, to be her number one executive at the company. He was a hot tempered manager. Together, the two created a very toxic work environment. Elizabeth and Sunny demanded complete loyalty. Anyone questioning methodology would be either marginalized or fired.
Elizabeth was obsessed with Steve Jobs, and soon began to dress all in black, in imitation of Jobs. She lured away several of Apple employees to work at Theranos. While initially excited about working in a biotech company, the former Apple employees soon became disillusioned and left.
The book describes how Elizabeth and Sunny deceived potential investors as to the efficacy of the technology.
In 2015, the author, an investigative reporter for the Wall Street Journal, got a tip about the goings-on at Theranos. He quickly began asking questions. When he seemed to get too close to the truth, Elizabeth turned her legal team on him and his paper. She was able to hire one of the most prestigious lawfirm that threatened to destroy both the author and the paper. This tactic had worked on employees deemed to be disloyal. The paper, however, refused to back down.
Tyler Schultz, grandson of George Schultz, briefly worked at Theranos. When he became disillusioned by the company, he was threatened by the company's legal team. They tried to strong-arm him into signing various disclosures after he left the company's employment. They even used his famous grandfather as leverage. Unfortunately, this caused a riff between George and Tyler that appears not to have been repaired.
Theranos was exposed, and as of the publication of the book, Elizabeth and Sunny have been indicted on criminal charges. In addition, both have been involved in civil suits.
This book reads like a crime story.
Read: January 30, 2019
5 Stars
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