The Cult of We

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.

May 14, 2021

Wall Street Journal reporters Brown and Farrell, who covered the spectacle as it happened, now collaborate on this detailed account of the ultra-precipitous rise and inevitable fall of WeWork, a company with astonishing ambitions and a charismatic founder who, for a while, had the financial world convinced that his business was worth billions. Brash, unbridled, self-aggrandizing, and self-enriching, Adam Neumann built a trendy office rental business into a burgeoning company with vague goals and purpose, random business practices, chaotic management, and delusional corporate governance; it bled money and never approached profitability. In pursuit of constant growth, Neumann, encouraged by investor Masayoshi Son and unchecked by anyone, made increasingly reckless decisions with an obstinate disregard of red flags. WeWork's disastrous, failed IPO and Neumann's ouster now seem assured from the start, but Brown and Farrell effectively explain how investors, advisors, and employees were in Neumann's thrall at the time. This book carefully tells how, when doubts arose, no one stood up to Neumann until it was too late. VERDICT This juicy cautionary tale, which complements the 2021 documentary WeWork: Or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn, will appeal to fans of high drama in business and commerce.--Janet Ingraham Dwyer, State Lib. of Ohio, Columbus

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 15, 2021
A comprehensive report on the WeWork startup from windfall to downfall. Wall Street Journal reporters Brown and Farrell recount their long-running media coverage of the melodramatic rise and fall of WeWork, another tech startup with lofty aspirations but dubious motivations and faulty executive leadership. The company debuted in 2010 in New York's SoHo district as a shared-workspace venture led by charismatic CEO Adam Neumann, an Israeli businessman who got his start selling children's clothing. The breathless narrative, propelled by diligent reporting, chronicles the startup's rapid expansion worldwide, eventually becoming the most valuable startup in the country. Excessive spending, private jets, lavish corporate retreats, and outrageous employee perks followed, all buoyed by a "fund-raising conveyor belt" of nonstop investors, including the "second-largest private investment ever made in a U.S. startup," courtesy of Japanese holding company SoftBank in 2017. The authors then chart WeWork's inevitable decline once investors began balking at Neumann's esoteric, obsessive business ventures and his obvious bouts of financial euphoria. Drawing from interviews with former WeWork and SoftBank staff, rivals, friends, and family members, Brown and Farrell vividly piece together the details of how Neumann persuaded backers to invest in his company with minimal oversight while those same venture capitalists also believed WeWork was a remunerative tech firm rather than the perilous real estate company it truly was. In what the authors call a bait-and-switch debacle, tens of billions in company value evaporated in 2019, and the company immediately unraveled. There followed Neumann's ouster, regulatory investigations, investor lawsuits, and banks running scared and reneging on lending agreements. The book's coda includes an update on Neumann's status: "Eager and full of energy," he is "yearning to get back in the game" and attempting to reattract funders and staff "who hadn't turned on him." A rousing expos� of extreme financial greed and yet another example of modern corporate hubris.

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June 1, 2021
WeWork is not just a business, it's a way of life. Every aspect of the stylish coworking space geared toward millennials the company leased to was touched by cofounder Adam Neumann, who saw himself as both the Mark Zuckerberg and the Sheryl Sandberg of WeWork. He also insisted that WeWork was a tech company and not merely a real--estate broker. Neumann's vision and charisma wowed investors around the world, leading to a valuation of several billion dollars without the company ever turning a profit. Wall Street Journal reporters Brown and Farrell trace the rise and abrupt fall of a company caught up in the Silicon Valley venture capital machine and drunk on its own hype. They focus on the financial aspects of the WeWork story and the players who stood to gain the most from the company, but there is plenty of time spent on Neumann's infamous excesses--tequila-fueled meetings are just the start. While not quite a Theranos-level scam, readers will be fascinated to learn what Neumann tried to--and did--get away with in the name of his vision for WeWork.

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