Introducing Foundering

The Pay Check

Bloomberg

Society & Culture, Business, Investing

4.4 • 630 Ratings

🗓️ 25 June 2020

⏱️ 5 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Adam Neumann had a vision: to make his startup WeWork a wildly successful company that would change the world. He convinced thousands of other people -- customers, employees, investors -- that he could make that dream a reality. And for a while, he did. He was one of the most successful startup founders in the world. But then, in the span of just a few months, everything changed.

Foundering is a new serialized podcast from the journalists at Bloomberg Technology. This season, we’ll tell you the story of WeWork, a company that captured the startup boom of the 2010s and also may be remembered as a spectacular bust that marked the end of an era.

Catch the first two episodes of Foundering, available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is an IHeart podcast.
0:04.2	A warming planet, complex geopolitics and fierce competition means business operations are under more scrutiny than ever before.
0:13.0	Returning to Singapore this July, the Bloomberg Sustainable Business Summit is uniting leaders and investors
0:19.0	to explore how sustainability efforts can bolster resilience
0:23.0	and mitigate risk. Learn more at Bloomberg.com slash sbs-sbs-Singapore. That's Bloomberg
0:29.6	live.com slash sbs-sdash Singapore. Everyone was too bright-eyed and too eager.
0:40.7	And we chanted, we work.
0:42.9	We chanted, we work, we work, and then we hit a gong.
0:47.7	Not that long ago, Adam Newman was one of the most successful startup founders in the world.
0:56.6	He was a visionary leader who said he was going to overturn a trillion-dollar industry. If we work, we really strive to help
1:02.9	you as much as we can. Focus on doing what you love. Create your life's work and let us take care
1:08.1	of the rest. Venture capitalists were falling all over themselves to invest in his company.
1:14.6	We work has revolutionized the leasing of office space.
1:17.5	$10 billion invest in this company.
1:19.9	It's the second largest venture capital investment of all time.
1:24.6	He ran the most valuable startup in America, and he pitched that he was going to revolutionize your work life.
1:31.3	It sells fun. I mean, it sells excitement. You don't even have to go out to a bar or a club.
1:38.3	We will bring that all to your office space where you sit and do work, the bar is now at your desk.
1:45.7	So when you first walked in, you're like, dude, this place is awesome.
1:48.4	Like, what is going on?
1:50.1	But as Adam raised more and more money, things started to get strange.
1:55.8	You know, if Adam was coming down the hall, it's like every executive's butthole titans.
	...

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