Bad Blood

I can't say why for sure but I have been obsessed with Theranos from day one. I have a vague feeling of a memory of hearing about their first "blood test patch" patent and product, thinking, huh, thats amazing. It was amazing because it was a lie, there never was such a thing as a "blood test patch" but that didn't stop Elizabeth Holmes from raising millions from rich family friends like Tim Draper and her families "Fleischmann Yeast" fortune to fund her new fake company when she was only 19 years old. This book is about, Elizabeth Holmes, who was (is) a psychopathic rich girl who (because of her family wealth and connections) was able to eliminate anyone around her who told her "no" and built a billion dollar company (Theranos) based on nothing but lies and her families' money. "Hate is like drinking poison and expecting it to harm your enemy," but still, I hate Elizabeth Holmes.

She started rich, was given everything, dropped out of one of the best schools in the world after just 1 year, and somehow got people to believe that she had INVENTED a device that could do what all of the large clinical testing companies had been trying to do for decades. After finishing freshman year, Holmes had her father's lawyer help her "write a patent" for an "idea" of a patch that could somehow, test your blood. It would be no different if Holmes has said she had "invented" a more efficient form of flight and was going to sell her idea to airline companies, saving them billions of dollars.

The biggest question of me is still just why. Why did anyone fall for this, why did no one tell those people how stupid the concept was or why did it take so long? If it really is this easy to become a $10 billion company, why are we not seeing a lot more nonsense ideas out there in this category? To anyone paying attention to Theranos, it was clear it was never anything other than a stock option pyramid scheme, destined to fail. To anyone paying attention to Elizabeth Holmes, it was clear that she was lying and, for some reason, doing a weird fake deep voice thing. I mean, the voice alone, if you have not heard this fake voice thing she does, please do, its weird.

In Bad Blood author, John Carreyrou details the story of how Elizabeth Holmes would be "caught" using her real voice in the office during late nights or when she thought she was otherwise alone. Like, what kind of a nut FAKES THEIR VOICE for years on end. On the upside though, this has given me a renewed meaning to my life, find out what Holmes' "real voice" sounds like. This was a great book and I would recommend it to anyone and everyone who has been completely obsessed with Theranos and Holmes for the last decade and have been aching for the downfall of this obvious lunatic and her fake company. My only hope is that the take down of Trump is as sweet as watching Holmes fail in every excruciating detail in this amazing book.