Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup

work by Carreyrou

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July 22, 2026

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Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou details the rise and fall of Theranos, a medical diagnostic company founded by Elizabeth Holmes. Holmes claimed Theranos could perform over 1,000 blood tests using only a few drops of blood, a revolutionary concept that attracted significant investment and partnerships with major retailers like Walgreens.12

However, whistleblowers and investigative reporting revealed that Theranos's technology was unreliable and that the company had falsified its data. Holmes and her partner, Ramesh \"Sunny\" Balwani, were subsequently charged with fraud. Holmes was convicted of defrauding investors and began an 11-year prison sentence in 2023. The book chronicles the deception, the impact on patients, and the eventual legal consequences for those involved.12

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Theranos, Inc.
Legal outcomes
…released an investigative nonfiction book, Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup, chronicling Theranos’s secrets. Following Carreyrou’s breakthrough reporting, Holmes has also been the subject of an HBO documentary, The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley (2019). An ABC podcast, titled The Dropout (2019–22), was adapted…
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…released an investigative nonfiction book, Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup, chronicling Theranos’s secrets. Following Carreyrou’s breakthrough reporting, Holmes has also been the subject of an HBO documentary, The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley (2019). An ABC podcast, titled The Dropout (2019–22), was adapted…
Read More