Balwani knew nothing about microfluidics or blood work. He was a software guy who had gotten rich in B2B ecommerce during the first dotcom boom. And as Carreyro

Balwani knew nothing about microfluidics or blood work. He was a software guy who had gotten rich in B2B ecommerce during the first dotcom boom. And as Carreyrou points out, he had a reputation in the company for trying to sound smart by mimicing buzzwords.