WSJ’s Carreyrou talks about how the Theranos story happened

John Carreyrou, an investigative reporter at The Wall Street Journal, talks about his coverage of the blood testing company Theranos in a short video.

Carreyrou notes in the video that he began investigating the company after a whistleblower approached him with information about its operations.

“The blood testing startup wasn’t all that it seemed,” said Carreyrou.  “I talked to my editor, Mike Siconolfi, and he agreed we should investigate.”

Carreyrou then spent months collecting accounts from doctors, patients and whistleblowers. His reporting was made more difficult because of nondisclosure agreements signed by former employees.

“When we confronted them with our findings, they responded by threatening us with litigation and threatening our sources,” said Carreyrou.

The Journal ran the story anyway, and Carreyrou has continued to report about the company.

“The response was explosive,” said Carreyrou. “People woke up to the excesses of the Silicon Valley boom.”

Watch the video here. Read his coverage of Thearnos here.