Film · The screening room

The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley

Name: The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley
Director: Alex Gibney
Released: 2019

Alex Gibney (dir.) · 2019

Gibney's documentary on Theranos, with footage of the company and its founder that no written account can reproduce.

Why it is here

Produced by HBO Documentary Films and Jigsaw Productions and premiered in March 2019, this covers the same events as Bad Blood with one significant advantage: it has the tape. Internal footage and interviews show how the company presented itself in a way prose cannot.

For an angel that matters more than it sounds. The failure at Theranos was substantially one of persuasion, and watching the persuasion work on camera is a more useful inoculation than reading that it did.

It is the natural companion to Bad Blood rather than a substitute for it — the book has the reporting, the film has the footage.

Read it if

You have read Bad Blood and want to see what the written account can only describe.

Skip it if

You are choosing one or the other — read the book first.

Pair it withBad BloodJohn CarreyrouThe definitive account of Theranos, by the journalist whose reporting brought it down — and the best diligence education on this list.

What it explains

Terms this covers

Warranties & representationsStatements of fact about the company given by the company and sometimes its founders in the investment documents, which give investors a claim if they turn out to be untrue.