How is the WeWork Founder Still Rich?!

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WeWork, once valued at an astounding $47 billion, initially impressed with its vision to transform office spaces. Founded in 2010, the company's rapid rise under Adam Neumann and Miguel McKelvey promised flexible workspaces. However, as it approached its 2019 IPO, revelations of substantial losses and governance issues led to the cancellation. The question lingers: was WeWork's unicorn status a genuine success, or did it hide deeper issues?
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[slidebean]

Join the Startup Club 🕶 📧 - Get a bi-weekly digest of startup news (and the new Adam Newmann's of the world).

[soumen_das]

Can we have series of successfull founders who had integrity?

[karachaffee]

The modern corporate strategy is to pay all the important people up front as the business is initially capitalized . Then investor money is used to buy a market share for a few years. The business never really turns a profit and it collapses. But the founders and any investment bankers involved walked away with the money--years earlier.

[OrangePillarPod]

bro sold his stock. boom saved you 20 minutes

[dimplesd]

Adam is now “revolutionizing” housing/renting an apartment with his new company “flow”. It’s basically super expensive rent to own but with “culture and fun”. He’s already raised a gagillion dollars 😑😑😑

[JosePiusV]

*Appreciate your videos! I’m 54 and younger generations should know there’s no shortcut to acquiring wealth, but there are ways to go about it. Fellow millionaires don’t tell the poor/middle class they need the knowledge of finance coaches to help build their wealth. If anyone here needs a good coach, here’s it..*

[rishisunak]

Adam Neumann was made a billionaire for being investors' idea of a founder...just like Kim Kardashian was made a millionaire for being network TV's idea of a celebrity.

[andre-le-bone-aparte]

Hot Take: Don't be like Adam Neumann... be like Ben Chestnut (MailChimp Co-Founder) who didn't raise ANY outside funding and still managed to sell the company to Intuit for around $12 Billion

[the_real_swiper]

Company: "Renting out workspace."

Investors: 🤯🤯🤯

[Seanpfree]

That is how our whole economy works. Limited liability. Start a company, borrow money, pay yourself and investors obscenely while paying workers minimally, walk away rich before it goes completely under.

[_CoachW]

I worked in SoCal for 15 years, through corporate wellness contracts I got exposed to a few charismatic leaders. It is truly impressive and hard to explain the effect these people have. Even when you know it's BS... it's a bit unsettling honestly.

[orangeSoda]

My favorite part of the movie was when he said, "It's scamming time!"

[JeremyPickett]

Absolutely, just absolutely love it. I've been in startup-world for a long time, as a senior SME. I could never wrap my head around the intangibles . Numbers prove truth, right? That's why I'm not gonna be a billionaire, but man being so close to where the sausage is made is captivating :D Great video

[Viviko]

I’m not sure Amazon is a good example of this “burning money” concept you speak of. I could be wrong. But, Amazon’s economics actually made sense. They were just reinvesting in the company instead of returning money to investors immediately.

Many companies today have economics that don’t make any sense.

[Cvrtaywa]

The irony is that Jared Leto a cult leader is acting as Adam who led WeWork like a cult.

[potodds_trading]

Unfortunately you guys completely missed the huge impact that Masayoshi Son and his SoftBank Vision Fund had on Neumann and WeWork. Son kept egging Neumann to be bigger and larger which led Neumann to envision a ton of crap outside of the original core business. So I think Son had a decent amount of blame for WeWork downfall.

[mattwhets]

As an early employee of wework who lost everything from it, I ask myself this question once a week.

[Nishandh_Mayiladan]

WeWork is profitable in India. There are some interesting reasons behind it. It's run by real estate giants directly.

[celebritygreenbox]

can we have a video of how many founders who really started from nothing, not borrowed money from family like Adam from his Sister, Elon from his Dad, Zuck with his family or Gates who's from a wealthy family.
It seems to me that a lot started from money or at least have money to begin with. And having money means having the connection as well. And I think it's being overlooked how money or connection really has the highest impact in making your startup a success. Imagine, if Jeff has no money to support him during the early years of Amazon? or Zuck with Facebook? Or if Amazon or Facebook were founded initially by minority founders who've no money nor connection?

[jayski]

Isn't all this just a scaled up version of the multi-level marketing schemes like May Kay Cosmetics or Herbalife? Right down to the chanting at rallys to whip up excitement for the product. You're selling a sense of belonging and purpose to people who might otherwise have none. It's the classic confidence game. But sometimes it does work. That's why most companies are not started by PhD's but rather by good poker players.