Why WeWork Didn't Work
Uncanny Valley | WIRED
WIRED
4.1 • 572 Ratings
🗓️ 16 July 2021
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In the 11 years since its founding, WeWork has had a wild ride. At its core, it's a real estate company that subleases trendy office spaces to other businesses. But the workers at the company, lead by their charismatic CEO Adam Neumann and intoxicated by a $47 billion valuation, partied like it was a rebellious tech startup. Behind all the kombucha taps in WeWork’s offices was a culture of extravagant splurging, furious hedonism, and questionable business decisions. The bad behavior persisted for a decade before it all came crashing down.
This week on Gadget Lab, we talk with Eliot Brown and Maureen Farrell, the Wall Street Journal reporters who helped reveal the absurd shenanigans that led to the downfall of WeWork. Their new book, The Cult of We: WeWork, Adam Neumann, and the Great Startup Delusion, is a chronicle of the company’s rollicking journey.
Show Notes:
The Cult of We comes out July 20. You can preorder it here. And be sure to follow all of Eliot and Maureen’s reporting at The Wall Street Journal.
Recommendations:
Maureen recommends the show Schitt’s Creek. Eliot recommends the podcast Fiasco, specifically season two, which is about the Iran Contra Scandal. Lauren recommends the Listings Project, a community newsletter for people looking for temporary housing. Mike recommends Mixcloud for discovering new music through DJ sets.
Maureen Farrell can be found on Twitter @maureenmfarrell. Eliot Brown is @eliotwb. Lauren Goode is @LaurenGoode. Michael Calore is @snackfight. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. The show is produced by Boone Ashworth (@booneashworth). Our theme music is by Solar Keys.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Mike. |
| 0:01.0 | Lauren. |
| 0:01.6 | Mike, do you ever wish that our office at Wired had kombucha on tap or that we described it as a physical social network or maybe that we would just remove the I and the R and the D from our name and call it we? |
| 0:14.2 | I can honestly say that I don't think I have ever desired any of those things. |
| 0:18.4 | Well, a lot of people bought into those ideas of what an office should be. |
| 0:23.2 | And it didn't exactly, we work out. |
| 0:26.9 | Nope. |
| 0:34.5 | Hi, everyone. |
| 0:35.4 | Welcome to Gadget Lab. |
| 0:36.3 | I'm Lauren Good. |
| 0:37.2 | I'm a senior writer at Wired. And I am Michael |
| 0:39.9 | Kalori, a senior editor at Wired. Today we're joined by special guests, Wall Street Journal reporters |
| 0:44.6 | Maureen Farrell and Elliott Brown. Thanks to both of you for joining us. Thanks for having us. |
| 0:49.6 | So the two of you have co-written a new book called The Cult of We, WeWork, Adam Newman, and the Great Startup |
| 0:56.0 | Delusion. And the book, of course, is about the start of WeWork. So if you aren't familiar, |
| 1:00.7 | WeWork rented out shared office spaces, often called co-working spaces. And it was once valued |
| 1:05.7 | at $47 billion. But that all came crashing down when the company tried to go public and had to |
| 1:11.7 | reveal its truly wild business practices and the risks to its business. So, Elliot and Maureen, |
| 1:18.7 | you've both been reporting on WeWork for years. And before we get into the wild WeWorks stories, |
| 1:24.1 | can you first explain what WeWork started as? Right? Because I think a lot of people |
| 1:29.0 | have heard about it as a unicorn with a charismatic leader and with all of the trappings and |
| 1:33.9 | a lure of a modern techish company. But it actually had a business. What made WeWork and its business |
... |
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