Adam Neumann: This is How You Build Iconic Companies

a16z Podcast

a16z

Science, Innovation, Business, Entrepreneurship, Culture, Disruption, Software Eating The World, Technology

4.4 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 16 June 2025

⏱️ 90 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this recent episode of The Ben & Marc Show, a16z co-founders Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz sit down with Adam Neumann—founder of WeWork and now Flow—to unpack one of the most unlikely comeback stories in tech. What began as a personal reckoning after a very public fall has become a bold new vision for how we live and belong. Flow isn’t just a real estate company—it’s an operating system for community, built on first-principles software, design, and soul. Joined by a16z General Partner Erik Torenberg, the group goes deep on: - Why Adam’s childhood shaped his obsession with community - Adam’s fall from WeWork—and how he found a new path to redemption - How Flow is re-architecting real estate from scratch - Why loneliness is the greatest design challenge of our time With reflections on dyslexia, the American dream, and the thin line between failure and greatness, this is a candid and wide-ranging conversation about redemption, vision, and building something that matters in this world. We hope you enjoy this deeply human conversation about the future of living.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	You said, Adam, tell me how you're doing.
0:02.1	And I jumped straight into my lessons learned and this had an answer.
0:06.0	And you were like, oh, you're still in that stage.
0:09.2	And we don't know each other, but I was like,
0:10.8	Mark, please tell me what that stage is.
0:12.8	He goes, you know, the stage when you forgot everything you did
0:15.4	and believe everything that was written about you.
0:17.8	It's a stage that will pass.
0:22.4	What happens when a founder follows a single, powerful idea across decades, refining, involving, and reimagining it at
0:27.6	every step? Our guest on the Ben and Mark Show is Adam Newman, founder and CEO of Flo, and someone
0:33.6	whose vision for how we live has remained remarkably consistent, community, connection,
0:38.0	and belonging at scale. In this conversation, Adam shares the personal and formative experiences
0:43.6	that have shaped his thinking and why Flow is more than just a real estate company. It's a
0:48.2	full-stack approach to redesigning residential living. Bet and Mark dig into the origins of their
0:53.0	partnership with Adam, the architecture
0:55.0	behind Flows vertically integrated model, and what it means to build a company where the product is
0:59.6	the experience. This episode is about long-term vision, systems thinking, and building for how we
1:05.1	actually want to live. Let's get into it.
1:15.5	As a reminder, the content here is for informational purposes only.
1:25.9	Should not be taken as legal business, tax, or investment advice, or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any A16Z fund.
1:30.0	Please note that A16Z and its affiliates may also maintain investments in the companies discussed in this podcast.
1:31.7	For more details, including a link to our investments, please see A16Z.com forward slash disclosures.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 27 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from a16z, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of a16z and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.