You guys ever lied your way to being a billionaire and then got caught? Yeah… SAME.

Welp, here is the story of how Elizabeth Holmes started off a hero and stuck around long enough to become the villain (RIP Heath Ledger). Theranos could have been one of the most important companies of the last 100 years, but… they kinda dramatically over-promised… produced overly optimistic projections… or… put another way… they lied…so hard…ALL THE TIME. They lied in ever-bigger ways and then threatened to destroy anyone who tried to expose them. 

This book reads like a thriller, especially the parts written while the author was actively being threatened with lawsuits that would send him back to the Stone Age. It’s got some fun twists and turns and cool little details like CIA operations, Fleischmann's yeast, 1970s American foreign policy, some Real Housewives of Silicon Valley style shit and so, so, so many legal threats.

Elizabeth Holmes tried really hard to "fake it ’til you make it," but ended up just faking and never making it. We went into this book expecting the worst part to be the cover-up of their shitty tech, but the most repulsive part was actually how they routinely tried to ruin the lives of people who exposed their lies while patients suffered. It’s almost as if their entire business model was to over-promise, under-deliver, and suppress dissent—all while wearing a black turtleneck and lowering your voice an octave.

This is a fun, fascinating read about the minefield of venture capital in medicine. We also recommend the miniseries. Hemophobiacs be warned… it gets bloody… literally and figuratively.

BUY THIS BOOK