Foundering WeWork
Adam Neumann, the co-founder of WeWork, conquered New York with his yogi-inspired, communal-living office spaces. The start-up surged to a reported $47 billion valuation in 2019, but that figure was a mirage. With exclusive recordings of internal meetings, the host Ellen Huet gives in-the-room access to Neumann’s a-dollar-for-me-none-for-you leadership style. He told employees they shouldn’t plan on getting credit for their ideas and bragged about underpaying staff, all while touting community first and giving New Age-y interviews. Documents leaked to Huet showed the company planning layoffs while their leader boasted about profits. Drawing from years of experience covering WeWork and revealing interviews with ex-employees, Huet deconstructs Neumann’s cult of personality to explain the company’s rise and decline. This isn’t the typical Wall Street tale of investors getting cheated. (Unlike a lot of corporate swindlers, Neumann never broke a law, and his product was real.) Foundering documents the damage left by the runaway pursuit of wealth.
Storyline
Adam Neumann, the co-founder of WeWork, conquered New York with his yogi-inspired, communal-living office spaces. The start-up surged to a reported $47 billion valuation in 2019, but that figure was a mirage. With exclusive recordings of internal meetings, the host Ellen Huet gives in-the-room access to Neumann’s a-dollar-for-me-none-for-you leadership style. He told employees they shouldn’t plan on getting credit for their ideas and bragged about underpaying staff, all while touting community first and giving New Age-y interviews. Documents leaked to Huet showed the company planning layoffs while their leader boasted about profits. Drawing from years of experience covering WeWork and revealing interviews with ex-employees, Huet deconstructs Neumann’s cult of personality to explain the company’s rise and decline. This isn’t the typical Wall Street tale of investors getting cheated. (Unlike a lot of corporate swindlers, Neumann never broke a law, and his product was real.) Foundering documents the damage left by the runaway pursuit of wealth.
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