WeWork: Rise, Collapse, and Adam Neumann’s Perspective

The rise and fall

• WeWork expanded at extraordinary speed, growing from 13,000 employees to just three in one week.
• In 2019, the company filed to go public at a reported valuation of about $47 billion.
• Its filing disclosed roughly $3 billion in losses over three years, and other details that attracted scrutiny.
• Neumann says the company grew faster than he could, and that success and rising valuations shifted his focus toward money and ego.
• He says WeWork was pushed toward going public before it was ready.

Neumann’s departure

• Neumann says he stepped down as CEO by choice after the IPO effort failed.
• He disputes the claim that he was fired and says he felt betrayed immediately after resigning.

Looking back

• Neumann says he believes he did far more right than wrong at WeWork, while acknowledging that he lost sight of the company’s original purpose.
• The interview begins exploring why he returned to business after WeWork, but the provided clip ends before his answer.