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The Cult of We
WeWork, Adam Neumann, and the Great Startup Delusion
1 of 2 copies available
The definitive story of the rise and fall of WeWork (also depicted in the upcoming Apple TV+ series WeCrashed, starring Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway), by the real-life journalists whose Wall Street Journal reporting rocked the company and exposed a financial system drunk on the elixir of Silicon Valley innovation.
LONGLISTED FOR THE FINANCIAL TIMES AND MCKINSEY BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD
WeWork would be worth $10 trillion, more than any other company in the world. It wasn’t just an office space provider. It was a tech company—an AI startup, even. Its WeGrow schools and WeLive residences would revolutionize education and housing. One day, mused founder Adam Neumann, a Middle East peace accord would be signed in a WeWork. The company might help colonize Mars. And Neumann would become the world’s first trillionaire.
This was the vision of Neumann and his primary cheerleader, SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son. In hindsight, their ambition for the company, whose primary business was subletting desks in slickly designed offices, seems like madness. Why did so many intelligent people—from venture capitalists to Wall Street elite—fall for the hype? And how did WeWork go so wrong?
In little more than a decade, Neumann transformed himself from a struggling baby clothes salesman into the charismatic, hard-partying CEO of a company worth $47 billion—on paper. With his long hair and feel-good mantras, the six-foot-five Israeli transplant looked the part of a messianic truth teller. Investors swooned, and billions poured in.
Neumann dined with the CEOs of JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs, entertaining a parade of power brokers desperate to get a slice of what he was selling: the country’s most valuable startup, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and a generation-defining moment.
Soon, however, WeWork was burning through cash faster than Neumann could bring it in. From his private jet, sometimes clouded with marijuana smoke, he scoured the globe for more capital. Then, as WeWork readied a Hail Mary IPO, it all fell apart. Nearly $40 billion of value vaporized in one of corporate America’s most spectacular meltdowns.
Peppered with eye-popping, never-before-reported details, The Cult of We is the gripping story of careless and often absurd people—and the financial system they have made.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
July 20, 2021 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9780593340172
- File size: 381569 KB
- Duration: 13:14:56
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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March 22, 2021
Wall Street Journal reporters Brown and Farrell trace the rise and fall of WeWork in this drama-filled debut, a cautionary tale of startup excess. Brown and Farrell follow charming, ambitious, and reckless founder and CEO Adam Neumann from his start as a baby clothes salesman in 2006 to the head of a unicorn startup that carried a market value of tens of billions of dollars. WeWork’s early success stoked unheard-of investments, but increasing ambitions and a lack of focus (including the goal to overhaul the world’s education system) drove such erratic corporate behavior as acquiring a wave pool maker in hopes of enhancing WeWork communities. After several years of dizzying growth, though, in 2019, $40 billion in the company’s value “vanished, virtually overnight” as it became clear WeWork was “simply a real estate company” and not a tech enterprise. Brown and Farrell write in sharp prose as they cover drug-fueled private jet flights, financial shenanigans, and a botched IPO, enlivening what could have been a dry postmortem of a failed startup. A delicious chronicle of hubris and misjudgment, this will hit the spot for fans of business tales that walk on the wild side. Agent: Eric Lipfer, Fletcher & Co.
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