bad-blood

John Carreyrou's Bad Blood — an executable toolkit that extracts the investigative lessons from the Theranos scandal: how fraud happens in Silicon Valley, how charismatic founders deceive smart people, which red flags to watch for, and how whistleblowers and journalists exposed the truth. Covers 5 use cases: ① Fraud Pattern Recognition — spot warning signs in startups making bold claims ("I'm worried my company is cutting corners" "Is this startup too good to be true") ② Corporate Culture Analysis — distinguish a mission-driven culture from a secrecy-driven one ("My company hides too much from employees" "How do I know if my workplace is healthy") ③ Founder Due Diligence — evaluate whether a founder's charisma is masking problems ("This founder seems brilliant but something feels off" "How to assess a founder's integrity") ④ Whistleblower Preparation — understand what it takes to come forward ("I see something wrong at work but I'm scared to speak up" "How do I report misconduct safely") ⑤ Governance & Board Oversight — recognize when a board is failing its duty ("Our board doesn't ask hard questions" "How do strong boards prevent scandals") Trigger when users say: "Is this startup a fraud" "Theranos" "Elizabeth Holmes" "How to spot a fake startup" "Silicon Valley culture is toxic" "Startup red flags" "I think my company is doing something wrong" "How to blow the whistle" "Board governance failures" "Founder worship is dangerous" "How to investigate a company" "What went wrong at Theranos" or mention: John Carreyrou / Bad Blood / Theranos / Elizabeth Holmes / Sunny Balwani / startup fraud / whistleblowing / Silicon Valley / corporate secrecy / blood testing / due diligence / investigative journalism / board governance. Related skills: clear-thinking-book (critical thinking and cognitive biases), the-checklist-manifesto (process and oversight), the-mountain-is-you (self-deception awareness).