The Ridiculous Rise and Fall of WeWork

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  • Опубліковано 25 лис 2024

КОМЕНТАРІ • 878

  • @ThePlainBagel
    @ThePlainBagel  Рік тому +59

    Start learning a new language today with 60% OFF Babbel (today's sponsor) during their Black Friday sale by clicking here:
    go.babbel.com/t?bsc=1200m60-youtube-theplainbagel-nov-2023-promo&btp=default&UA-cam&Influencer..theplainbagel..USA..UA-cam

    • @stlouisix3
      @stlouisix3 Рік тому

      Be eccentric, bro.

    • @Matheo05
      @Matheo05 Рік тому +3

      Here’s a challenge for 2024 : publish a video in french!

    • @ThePlainBagel
      @ThePlainBagel  Рік тому +11

      @@Matheo05 I have to learn how to ask for directions first, but maybe one day!

    • @ropro9817
      @ropro9817 Рік тому

      I know hindsight is 20/20, but it still blows my mind that the venture caps fell for this horse shit. I guess greed can make you stupid. 🤷

  • @Studeb
    @Studeb Рік тому +2253

    So comforting to know he landed on his feet, so much talent at running a company should not be lost just cause he lost investors tens of billions of dollars, while himself becoming a billionaire. Phew!

    • @IndexInvestingWithCole
      @IndexInvestingWithCole Рік тому

      @@ts87777hope you get banned

    • @enknaran
      @enknaran Рік тому

      ​@@ts87777the issue isn't wildly speculative investing and a lack of legal repercussions but rather the Jews.
      Guess we don't need to change the laws anymore. We found a scapegoat

    • @madeline5188
      @madeline5188 Рік тому +1

      That's not fair. It's like saying one of the millions of people who share your race happens to be a fraud, then everybody is a fraud. This guy is terrible but that does not warrant any reason for antisemitism. @@ts87777

    • @DylanJo123
      @DylanJo123 Рік тому

      ​@@ts87777homie just had to go there. U folks are becoming bold

    • @trisbane4086
      @trisbane4086 Рік тому

      @@ts87777 Jews bankrupted Germany, got genocided, fled to America. Now they're bankrupting America. To where next will they flee?

  • @kylewhaley6959
    @kylewhaley6959 Рік тому +741

    Dude literally BS's his way through life for 10 years, they call him out on it, and he says give me a billion and I'll go away. Insane.

    • @chowsquid
      @chowsquid Рік тому +27

      Imagine him going to his HS reunion before 2019 and then after.
      Probably the school weirdo that’s most likely to sell weed but then end up being WeWork CEO
      ….a different kind of weed

    • @FutureCommentary1
      @FutureCommentary1 Рік тому +4

      That makes him smart.

    • @3DPT
      @3DPT 11 місяців тому +16

      He played his cards right, got bought out before We crashed and burned. On one hand he's a tech bro foul up. Other devious hand he dealt himself out with the company paying him for his leases, overvaluation, and having his personality be the reason they forced them to buy him out. He's a devious jerk who played a lot of angles and got out ahead while he crashed the ship.

    • @joeybulford5266
      @joeybulford5266 9 місяців тому +4

      And then he starts another scam so he can do the same thing.

    • @Damnbro555
      @Damnbro555 7 місяців тому

      That white is delusional but people bought into his scam lol

  • @elatedmaniac
    @elatedmaniac Рік тому +441

    24 seconds in and things are already off the rails... How is a real-estate company mission to "solve the problem of children without parents and eradicating world hunger?!?!"

    • @ecoideazventures6417
      @ecoideazventures6417 Рік тому

      That's exactly the bullshit needed to sell the bigger picture to VCs and PE funds!

    • @bipolarminddroppings
      @bipolarminddroppings Рік тому +57

      The investors in WeWork: "I dunno, but fuck it, I'll get my return before the stock collapses..."

    • @seamusgreenmurphy
      @seamusgreenmurphy Рік тому +40

      Don't worry they're not a real estate company they're a high growth tech company 😮‍💨

    • @steverogers7601
      @steverogers7601 Рік тому +3

      The Silicone valley show hit the nail on the head with their “changing the world” joke

    • @user-uc5dm9bm7u
      @user-uc5dm9bm7u 6 місяців тому

      Yeah I was waiting for this guy to expand on that bc what 😂

  • @InventorZahran
    @InventorZahran Рік тому +449

    "Solving the problem of children without parents" could mean building an orphan-crushing machine. Never assume that an altruistic goal will be accomplished benevolently!

    • @JeanMarceaux
      @JeanMarceaux 7 місяців тому +18

      Orphan-crushing machine? How very Canadian.

    • @SneedsterSpeedster
      @SneedsterSpeedster 7 місяців тому +2

      ​@@JeanMarceauxHow progressive!

    • @ThePrimeMinisterOfTheBlock
      @ThePrimeMinisterOfTheBlock 6 місяців тому +1

      Yes, that's very obviously what the company intended to do 🙄

    • @TY-Tianyou
      @TY-Tianyou 6 місяців тому +2

      ​@@JeanMarceaux shh, don't give Trudeau ideas!

    • @dudemaister18
      @dudemaister18 5 місяців тому +2

      Is there a Kickstarter for the orphan crusher somewhere?

  • @chowsquid
    @chowsquid Рік тому +400

    So the key to raising billions for your startup is to have out of control hair, walk around bare foot, play LoL on calls, and promise world changing plans…..and also the children….of course it’s all for the children.

    • @JohnDemetriou
      @JohnDemetriou Рік тому +17

      I mean, SBF was also playing games during calls, so I guess that's true.

    • @LoganChristianson
      @LoganChristianson Рік тому +7

      @@JohnDemetriou That's what he's referring to, I believe.

    • @plewis4105
      @plewis4105 Рік тому +20

      VCs are basically just pump and dump schemes if we look at WeWork, Theranos and FTX.

    • @chiefenumclaw7960
      @chiefenumclaw7960 Рік тому +16

      It helps if you're a member of the tribe.

    • @mariokarter13
      @mariokarter13 Рік тому +10

      You forgot cosplaying as Steve Jobs.

  • @Morbacounet
    @Morbacounet Рік тому +1659

    WeWork : a colossal failure who burned billions of investor's money.
    WeWork's CEO : received a massive golden parachute.
    We truly live in a meritocracy.

    • @jonevansauthor
      @jonevansauthor Рік тому +62

      Well, in a sense he merited the money because the other guys were even worse shepherds of it. Imagine what else they might have invested in if it weren't relatively benign offices that aren't profitable? A diet pill made of botulism? It'd be something crazy and potentially dangerous for sure :D

    • @xiphoid2011
      @xiphoid2011 Рік тому +14

      To be fair, this is how competition works. Higher the rank, the fewer the positions and qualified talents that exist. Each company is trying to hire the best CEO to beat out the others, so they have to out compete each each other in compensation packages. And when it's the fortune 500 companies (or in this case billionaire funded venture capitals) fighting for the best CEOs, that's how these huge sums of money come to be. The thing is, most fortune 500 CEOs are indeed true rare talents, think of Google's, Apple's, but how they grew these companies to trillion of dollars is less interesting than the fewer but much more fun to watch belly flops like WeWork.

    • @jonevansauthor
      @jonevansauthor Рік тому +130

      @@xiphoid2011 He didn't merit the money, he didn't earn it, the company is a flop, and the investors should never have given it. They're all epic failures. If it were a meritocracy, they wouldn't have had access to the funds to waste on his nonsense company, and he wouldn't have walked away with any money beyond a modest startup salary of enough to live on and not much more. Since you're supposed to merit the money, by actually achieving a viable company. They weren't hiring him as the CEO, he was the founder. It's not the same as BP picking a new fossil fuel muppet to destroy the world. Or Volkswagen getting rid of the guy who wanted EVs and hurtling toward their own imminent bankruptcy.

    • @lowwastehighmelanin
      @lowwastehighmelanin Рік тому +10

      We certainly live in a Time

    • @justuseodysee7348
      @justuseodysee7348 Рік тому +8

      He's doing the gods work. VCs should invest in him again in the future

  • @MithunOnTheNet
    @MithunOnTheNet Рік тому +517

    Founders of companies like WeWork and FTX are proof that VCs are not all as smart as they perceive themselves to be.

    • @Allen-L-Canada
      @Allen-L-Canada Рік тому +17

      but they spread their investment, and hope to hit a jackpot like Amazon.

    • @sulimansyed2444
      @sulimansyed2444 Рік тому +48

      Because they are looking for the next big thing and people like Newman play on their fears of Fear of Missing Out. Most VC's don't want the dull route of investing that Warren Buffet goes with.

    • @TheDavidlloydjones
      @TheDavidlloydjones Рік тому +5

      Um. You're going to tell us about some bunch of people who are "all as smart as they perceive themselves to be"?

    • @regenosis
      @regenosis Рік тому +25

      After watching shows like Dragon's Den and Shark Tank, I'm convinced many VCs don't actually know what they're doing at all. They either want majority control over your company and expects your revenue to already be in the millions and basically a sure-win, or they love that you don't wear underwear to work.

    • @mariokarter13
      @mariokarter13 Рік тому +2

      You might lose it all if you bet a billion here and there on the roulette wheel, but sometimes you hit the jackpot.

  • @ClingyParasite
    @ClingyParasite Рік тому +387

    I wouldn't wanna rent an office space at a company that has so much distractive, loud and disruptive environment from all the parties and alcohol

    • @FF18Cloud
      @FF18Cloud Рік тому +18

      I mean, the meetup/networking events though we're kinda fun, though. Only went to one weWork networking event once as a new grad waiting to start my first job back in 2016 when I was still living in Manhattan. Did meet people all over the silicon valley/Wall Street area (this was a weWork in Wall Street). Didn't really go back since, opting for the Playcrafting NYC game development meetups before Covid and got holed up in my first job at a non-wework office that I didn't go back, but the environment wasn't really that bad. Just the main management and ownership got too full of themselves and burned their whole business that would never work in a WFH work environment

    • @gzer0x
      @gzer0x Рік тому +35

      A classmate of mine worked at their offices in new york in the mid 2010s. the way she described it, they offered employees the ability to work and live close to each other, therefore these 'party' areas were really just "neutral spaces" that WeWork was trying to put all those places together. So you live at a wework property, you work at a startup at wework, and you hang out and socialize at wework. (I mean in 2015 Wework claimed that the plan was to have this co-living/working scheme to be 20% of its revenue...) it was freaking dystopic if you ask me.

    • @doctoroctos
      @doctoroctos Рік тому +15

      WeWork
      WeDidn’tWork
      WeDidn’tWorkOut

    • @Kevin_Street
      @Kevin_Street Рік тому +4

      @@gzer0x More like a southeast Asian work culture, where you're expected to go out and drink with your coworkers. Then go back to the office and work some more.

    • @Heyu7her3
      @Heyu7her3 Рік тому

      ​@@FF18Cloud I worked out of a similar space called WorkBar when I worked with a startup. It wasn't bad if you're a startup. You end up stuck at the workplace anyway _(due to startup entrepreneurship),_ so might as well make it interesting. I could only do it so long, tho, & needed more boundaries.

  • @TehCoasca
    @TehCoasca Рік тому +381

    Everytime I hear about WeWork I learn a new crazy thing they did.

    • @SwiperNoSwiping458
      @SwiperNoSwiping458 Рік тому +20

      Apparently Neumann spent a boatload of money on a robot that would deliver your coffee

    • @ThisistheTale
      @ThisistheTale Рік тому +22

      I saw another video that said WeWorks IT guy was a high school student, so when anything went wrong, they couldn't contact him during school hours

    • @RobVI
      @RobVI Рік тому +1

      ​@ThisistheTale wait, are you being serious!?

    • @ThisistheTale
      @ThisistheTale Рік тому +3

      @@RobVI Yes, haha, I'll see if I can find the video

    • @ThisistheTale
      @ThisistheTale Рік тому

      @@RobVI ua-cam.com/video/n3Q_4vjPMSE/v-deo.htmlsi=y1y4N53TscTqht1B Around 12:50 I guess it was just before they went super big

  • @SuperDancingmanatee
    @SuperDancingmanatee Рік тому +651

    This story just convinced me that the gift of gab is the closest thing there is of a real life superpower.

    • @eddenoy321
      @eddenoy321 Рік тому +13

      Yup

    • @davidglad
      @davidglad Рік тому +1

      More like reality distortion field aka Fooling Some of the People All of the Time.
      Not newsworthy if he merely duped broke losers.

    • @DeadlyTiger
      @DeadlyTiger Рік тому +85

      I really wish I had put my skills points into charisma instead of silly things like math and science.

    • @BasicName02
      @BasicName02 Рік тому +42

      Ehh you have to be able to get in front of the right stupid people for it to work.

    • @beng4647
      @beng4647 Рік тому +30

      You also have to be a sociopath.

  • @Metaris
    @Metaris Рік тому +87

    It sounds like We Work did exactly what it was supposed to do: make Neumann rich.

  • @aaronngui7938
    @aaronngui7938 Рік тому +70

    Some people are damn lucky. They can raise billions, run a company bankrupt, but still walk off with a golden handshake. Sometimes, it really feels that heaven no eyes.

  • @wilsonli5642
    @wilsonli5642 Рік тому +186

    The funniest part of the WeWork business model (aside from their ludicrous attempts to frame themselves as a tech company) is that they aren't even good at the main thing that they were trying to do, which is real estate management. Friends of mine who have worked out of WeWork offices always tell me that they're typically staffed by bored fresh college grads who sit at the front desk playing on their phones all day.

    • @patriciabrooks9782
      @patriciabrooks9782 Рік тому +9

      Yep, and if one has an appointment with their broker, they won't let them take a seat to wait, so welcome to standing outside in 120 degrees in Las Vegas. It looked like it had great potential, but what a disappointment when staffed by entitled, bored, condescending college students that regard anyone in business as bougie.

    • @thewhitefalcon8539
      @thewhitefalcon8539 Рік тому +13

      Who else would the front desk be staffed by?

    • @frevazz3364
      @frevazz3364 Рік тому +7

      Their main customers were startups who happen to be the most riskiest customer you could have because the failure rate is astronomical. Meanwhile these investors thought oh this is fine…

    • @AschKris
      @AschKris 11 місяців тому

      Me if I worked at WeWork

  • @cpm1003
    @cpm1003 Рік тому +244

    Adam Newman's terrible business ideas made him a billionaire. Such an inspiration....

    • @Arigal3
      @Arigal3 Рік тому +21

      terrible ideas. but a great salesman

    • @BharatkaEkBeta
      @BharatkaEkBeta Рік тому +7

      @@Arigal3Yeah only because of his race and his religion. I’d like to see any other person who looks different and has a different religion be able to convince people to part with their money like he did.

    • @chowsquid
      @chowsquid Рік тому +1

      Ummm,,,,how’s bout masayoshi son?

    • @Smitty_Werbenjagermanjenson
      @Smitty_Werbenjagermanjenson Рік тому

      Cult leaders are especially good at separating fools from their wallets

    • @mwwhited
      @mwwhited 11 місяців тому +1

      At times I wish I had the ethics to be one of these startup bros… but then I remember I prefer to not disgust myself.

  • @ShrimpOfDeath
    @ShrimpOfDeath Рік тому +128

    Institutional investors: eh, all these plebs are dumb money
    Also institutional investors: Awwww yiss, an office renting company with a crazy CEO, that's a moneymaker right there!

    • @frevazz3364
      @frevazz3364 Рік тому

      It’s not their money so they don’t care. They just operate on hyper FOMO.

    • @ekki1993
      @ekki1993 Рік тому +12

      Queue people using survivorship bias and single examples to try to make a counterargument to your point

    • @vahlen5281
      @vahlen5281 Рік тому +11

      The only explanation I have for this mind boggling lack of due diligence is that all these investors are probably so deeply afraid of missing the next Google, they jump on literally anything as long as it sounds insane enough.

  • @NavigatorBR
    @NavigatorBR Рік тому +128

    Part of me wanted to buy a share of WeWork for like $1, then request a paper certificate, then frame it and hang it up as a weird collectable/conversation piece.

    • @brokenphysics6146
      @brokenphysics6146 Рік тому +15

      You'd probably pay more for that paper certificate than the company is worth at this point

    • @NavigatorBR
      @NavigatorBR Рік тому

      @@brokenphysics6146 Oh, for sure. Part of why I haven't exactly rushed out to do it.

    • @methos1999
      @methos1999 Рік тому

      @@brokenphysics6146the frame is the most expensive part of the project😂.

    • @chowsquid
      @chowsquid Рік тому +1

      How about an NFT of a wewerk stock certificate?

    • @methos1999
      @methos1999 Рік тому +8

      @@chowsquidthat would be epic. I’d pay as high as $9.99 for that😂.

  • @omarperezpulido2388
    @omarperezpulido2388 Рік тому +46

    I was Chief of Staff at a company where I worked with the current COO of WeWork, USC. I recommended our CEO to fire him because he just wasn't good at his job. 2 months after I left the company, WeWork hired him with a huge raise and a penthouse, and then I find out that WeWork filed for bankruptcy... like, no wonder they're a failing business, they couldn't even hire someone capable for such an important position. The startup world is so messed up😅

    • @tomlxyz
      @tomlxyz Рік тому

      Can't really expect a start up to start off completely professional tbh

  • @sandiahead
    @sandiahead Рік тому +71

    I worked indirectly with their ipo. Plenty of people saw this coming before the ipo even happened lol.

    • @jazztheglass6139
      @jazztheglass6139 Рік тому +3

      I worked along side the film unit that shot their commercial in London about 4 years ago. I never saw it as a viable business with longevity.
      They only made 1 commercial

  • @gregtomamichel973
    @gregtomamichel973 Рік тому +184

    Amazing that a simple sub-leasing business wrapped in lots of hype attracted so much money. I really do wonder what SoftBank etc. thought the investment potential was?

    • @hedgehog3180
      @hedgehog3180 Рік тому +76

      I'm starting to suspect that venture capitalists don't know what numbers are.

    • @pkeeper419
      @pkeeper419 Рік тому +23

      He just thought Newman was another Jack Ma.

    • @LuisSierra42
      @LuisSierra42 Рік тому

      @@hedgehog3180 They invest based on vibes

    • @foobarFR
      @foobarFR Рік тому +23

      The zero-interest rate era meant that any possibility of future profits was "worth" it. With 10-years treasury notes at 4,4%, that kind of BS doesn't work anymore.

    • @jackrabbitping
      @jackrabbitping Рік тому +14

      Dude(masayoshi son) shed Boston dynamics, tried to shed ARM and is willing to sell part of it but not write off we work!!!!!! boggles my mind

  • @joshuapatrick682
    @joshuapatrick682 Рік тому +47

    Is this an example of a corporate rug pull? Neuman took 10 figures on his way out and left investors with absolutely nothing. Is it their fault for investing in a company that didn’t produce a product or service?

    • @Allen-L-Canada
      @Allen-L-Canada Рік тому +3

      and he stay out of jail.

    • @Zen-ow8xf
      @Zen-ow8xf Рік тому +9

      ​@@Allen-L-Canadayeah cuz he didn't fool the investors by making fraudulent documents. It's just that investors didn't take into account the effects of pandemic on real estate income, demand of office spaces, increased interest rates, etc.

    • @Allen-L-Canada
      @Allen-L-Canada Рік тому +2

      @@Zen-ow8xf yeah and he probably had no intention to cheat. Just bad business.

    • @loisisaacson2040
      @loisisaacson2040 Рік тому

      He and the insane wife should both be jail

    • @MK-gm2mq
      @MK-gm2mq 6 місяців тому

      They do produce a service

  • @geekyprojects1353
    @geekyprojects1353 Рік тому +78

    At the beginning Adam Newman had experience and Masayoshi Son had money. Now Adam Newman has money and Masayoshi Son has experience.

  • @Lithilic
    @Lithilic Рік тому +67

    Another lesson for VCs not to equate eccentricity with genius.

  • @dbunik44
    @dbunik44 Рік тому +90

    I once asked my polish landlord who had been living in this country since he was 19 and became a naturalized citizen in 2009 to describe America in one sentence, he said..."you have more money than brains"

    • @tranger4579
      @tranger4579 Рік тому +7

      Lol....that's what my Mexican Uncle said.
      He told me you know what makes the the USA a great country????? Americans have more money than common sense. That's great for people like us though it keeps us working.

    • @jerbear7952
      @jerbear7952 Рік тому +6

      This didn't happen

    • @dbunik44
      @dbunik44 Рік тому +9

      @@jerbear7952 I wish you didn't happen, but the that was your parents decision

  • @dv7768
    @dv7768 Рік тому +35

    I remember looking at some these offices. Yes they were nice but crazy expensive and sorry most businesses do not have the margin to pay for such costly places. Maybe I am old school but I believe a business should try to make a positive income and most of the folks renting these places I just don't see ever becoming a profitable business.

  • @SNDVeteran
    @SNDVeteran Рік тому +47

    sometimes i think this really is macro money laundering. like how are you valued so high when all your businesses suck? somewhere to park their money and profit before they eventually collapse.

    • @chowsquid
      @chowsquid Рік тому

      Ummm….bitcoin? NFT?

    • @jerbear7952
      @jerbear7952 Рік тому +2

      It is definitely moving money from one source to another. Is it laundering? Maybe

    • @missbearlockholmes
      @missbearlockholmes Рік тому +1

      That's what I honestly think about Banksy. I mean, it's right in the name...

    • @ilanamillion8942
      @ilanamillion8942 6 місяців тому

      @@chowsquid Elon Musk?

  • @lowwastehighmelanin
    @lowwastehighmelanin Рік тому +21

    Hey Richard, can you talk about the AirBnB bubble bursting? I'd like a more financially focused perspective on the collapse of the people who made it their whole personality including quite a number of youtubers. I've yet to see an in depth analysis of the sheer insanity and all of the legal impacts caused by AirBnB globally. It's been really chaotic.

  • @pauladrigwe2521
    @pauladrigwe2521 Рік тому +143

    As usual, the only victims of narcissistic Entrepreneur's tanking startups are the small businesses whose money is tied up in whatever scam was pushed. And Timmy. Who has to give back the vodka water gun 💔

    • @mikea5745
      @mikea5745 Рік тому

      You should watch the video a few more times, since your listening comprehension skills are so poor. SoftBank is the business that shouldered the vast majority of the losses. They are one of the largest companies in the world, the exact opposite of a small business

    • @henryackerson7138
      @henryackerson7138 Рік тому +9

      My heart aches for timmy😢

    • @tomlxyz
      @tomlxyz Рік тому +3

      Are you ignoring the investors who lost two digit billions?

    • @misterlinux9290
      @misterlinux9290 Рік тому +1

      ​@@tomlxyzRich people (whoever has more money than me) == no humans
      Typical zoomer loogic

    • @Zach-h2l
      @Zach-h2l 11 місяців тому

      ​​​​​@@misterlinux9290good strawman, very braindead👍

  • @BillLambert
    @BillLambert Рік тому +5

    Fellow Ottawa-Gatineau dude here, great video! And yeah, learning French is hell the older you are. I have lots of colleagues off on language training (silly government). They're too polite to openly say how much they hate it. I'm so glad I learned both English and French pretty much in parallel from childhood. Couldn't imagine starting from scratch now, even just picking up a tiny bit of spanish on vacation was so painful.

  • @2Cerealbox
    @2Cerealbox Рік тому +34

    How do people who are spectacular failures get billion dollar investments? What is wrong with the world.

    • @winzyl9546
      @winzyl9546 Рік тому +3

      Confidence is everything

    • @SK-rs1hu
      @SK-rs1hu 6 місяців тому

      I'm a spectacular failure where's my money?

  • @cartilagehead
    @cartilagehead Рік тому +33

    Marc Andreessen really knows how to pick winners. Definitely a once-in-a-generation genius beyond our understanding and not a weirdo eggman with his head in his butt who struck it lucky one time.

  • @CAPDude44
    @CAPDude44 Рік тому +7

    WeWork might have worked if they had stuck to non-traditional cities, had adults in charge, and not used terrible office design like modern open offices

  • @Maat11Udyat
    @Maat11Udyat Рік тому +12

    I’m employed for a Manufacturing corporation whom leases office space in a WeWork location in Mexico. It’s been the three years since the pandemic started occupying the WeWork office and often wondered how they managed to run even with all the location closing down in USA. I believe some of the reasons are pointing towards a sustainable growth and spending, reasonable terms with landlords and renting to bigger corporations than small business people. We’ll finally move out in 2024

  • @WhatWillYouFind
    @WhatWillYouFind Рік тому +11

    A traditional office space rental company branded themselves as a Tech company and milked everyone of their money. Yes, it is ridiculous that they even got the money . . . let alone had even a second of air time on the news cycle. It is a situation that both should've never happened and was easily avoidable, but . . . humanity is stupid. The worst thing of all is that scam after scam keeps happening, working, and very few of them actually end up in prison for their inevitable fraud.

  • @VicvicW
    @VicvicW Рік тому +5

    Its Worth pointing out that the wework model does work. In my city, there are LOADS of these sorts of offices set up for smaller companies. There is even rent by the hour office space.
    Wework, if I remember correctly WAS a tech VC startup. What put them aside from others in the space was their subscription model and their on demand office space rentals.
    They bungled it. There was a possibility it could have worked. It certainly was not a doomed ship.

    • @Zach-h2l
      @Zach-h2l 11 місяців тому +1

      are those companies with office space for smaller tenants middlemen like we work is? wasnt that one of the biggest problems with their model?
      and i dont understand what of what you said about their subscription model makes them a tech startup, especially given the real estate focus

  • @frevazz3364
    @frevazz3364 Рік тому +16

    WeWork: we are a transcendent, communal, thought space, innovating the future of the human experience thru technology
    Normal person: so you are tech company? How so?
    WeWork: we have an app

  • @PWingert1966
    @PWingert1966 Рік тому +12

    I once got a stale cheese sandwich and bottle of water from a pack of wandering we workers. NO good deed goes un-punished. I got diarrhea about an hour later and had a burnin bunghole for three days afterwards as well as vomiting and stomach cramps.

  • @musicjunkie274
    @musicjunkie274 Рік тому +21

    “Omg how did this ceo just get away with making up a value for his company and people believed it?!”
    Crypto holders: (don’t make eye contact with anybody)

    • @jtowensbyiii6018
      @jtowensbyiii6018 7 місяців тому

      Crypto itself isnt priced by anyone 😂 dont be a dumbass

  • @carterwgtx
    @carterwgtx Рік тому +44

    My favorite thing is when these tech bro guys advertise the amount of money they’ve raised rather then the amount of money they’ve actually made….it makes me seriously question the judgement of the venture capital community. Anybody remember the laughably incompetent tech bro CFOs complaining after Silicon Valley Bank collapsed. They were so proud of themselves when they’d discovered short term treasury bond. No wonder there’s not been anything particularly interesting come out of Silicon Valley in about a decade.

    • @Firevine
      @Firevine Рік тому +1

      Yep. One of my friends worked for Knock. The higher ups always talked about how much money they raised. My friend talked about how they weren't profitable.

  • @MrRobertpalen
    @MrRobertpalen Рік тому +15

    Adam Neumann aka the love child of tommy wiseau and Elizabeth holmes

  • @Bigwave2003
    @Bigwave2003 Рік тому +17

    WeWork is comprised of a lot of posers. From the founder Shady Neumann to their customers who wanted to be seen looking cool. What jobs require the "creative collaboration" that comes from a noisy office that serves beer, has other workers playing foosball, and offers constant distractions?

    • @shnlj5910
      @shnlj5910 Рік тому +2

      My parent company has a gym, basketball court, foosball tables. It's a way to blow off steam n think when tackling hard solutions and it works. I'll add though they aren't used as much as people might think. Well the gym is. I'm actually kind of jealous about it. It also has a wide open area with tables, an onsite tinkering lab, and an onsite fab n machining area with a skilled machinist for prototyping.
      The owner however believes in vertical integration so though he himself might offer some things WeWork does, he'll do it under his own roof as much as he can.

  • @iPondR
    @iPondR Рік тому +29

    "The thing about WeWork is that they... never really... worked."

    • @Allen-L-Canada
      @Allen-L-Canada Рік тому

      after chapter 11, they should change their name to "DonotWork". lol

  • @spoddie
    @spoddie Рік тому +10

    I guess world hunger won't be solved now.

  • @thomas.02
    @thomas.02 Рік тому +19

    WeWork, where VC bros learnt to stop worrying and embrace their inner hippie

  • @danielleuberroth1788
    @danielleuberroth1788 Рік тому +30

    Adam Neumann giving off big Jean-Ralphio vibes.

    • @secondsea2
      @secondsea2 Рік тому +3

      The most accurate comment.

    • @VelocitrapLords
      @VelocitrapLords Рік тому +7

      Has this been a high risk Rent-A-Swag this whole time?

  • @AppleEnglishNetwork
    @AppleEnglishNetwork Рік тому +6

    The common go to for modern companies is “We are not an X, we are a tech company”

  • @myafrosheen
    @myafrosheen Рік тому +5

    Why did I see a Wework ad on UA-cam today if it's bankrupt? They should cut that cost

  • @chowsquid
    @chowsquid Рік тому +9

    6:44 why isn’t the Plain Bagel also a tech company? Your valuation could 10x.
    Add-in mentions of AI as well.

  • @roc7880
    @roc7880 Рік тому +7

    the mistake done by Adam was not using the buzzword crypto or blockchain or chain or block or chainblock in the company name, more suckers would have bought the idea that WEWORK is a tech company.

  • @samagbasi
    @samagbasi Рік тому +8

    The thing that baffles me so much about things like this, is that after the fact, you talk about it so matter of fact like it wouldve been simple to figure out that this was gonna happen if you just took the time to look. But in reality, very few people profit off of situations like this.....makes me wonder what are the companies of today that are destined to go bust but we just havent recognized it yet, but 10 years from now, there will be videos like this about them. haha

  • @joro3108
    @joro3108 Рік тому +26

    Who is the next charismatic shill on whom I can ride the ascension from the ground up?

    • @curtisalex456
      @curtisalex456 Рік тому +11

      There are probably a few shills in the AI market.

  • @jaytang4954
    @jaytang4954 Рік тому +7

    we work a sub leasing company
    with no tech (srsly why was it ever a tech company? because they had a website?)
    charging any where from 3 x tox 10 the market price
    never posted a profit
    if ya invested in this bullshit you deserve to lose your money

  • @canorth
    @canorth Рік тому +10

    I’ll be sure to give you credit for my new Wetoke startup.

  • @suntanironman
    @suntanironman Рік тому +9

    1:52 I’d argue that Masayoshi Son convinced himself to invest billions in WeWork. Neumann had crazy ambitions for the company. But Masayoshi basically said Neumann wasn’t being crazy enough and then handed him billions. What did anybody expect was going to happen?! 😂

  • @hedgehog3180
    @hedgehog3180 Рік тому +14

    I really do not understand how rich people have any money left when they keep making decisions this stupid.

    • @12pentaborane
      @12pentaborane Рік тому +2

      Good decisions outweighing bad ones.

    • @InStevenWeTrust
      @InStevenWeTrust Рік тому +2

      Because people don't get mega rich by playing it ultra safe and conservative. That is living comfortably. You take risks albeit calculated ones. And hope the winners are far larger than the losers.

    • @sebastianlucas704
      @sebastianlucas704 Рік тому +2

      Those investors fall into a few categories
      A) they have so much money, they don't care. Probably makes up the minority.
      B) they have more good decisions they make with their money, outweighs the bad ones.
      C) inheritance. It's not uncommon for children to inherit vast amounts of wealth, and since they didn't earn it, they don't know the value of money. As such, they squander it.

    • @tarotsushima3332
      @tarotsushima3332 Рік тому +2

      @@InStevenWeTrust Thing is they feel comfortable doing so bc they're gambling with other people's money. Every time a startup or company crashes and burns, the people who have to reevaluate their entire livelihoods and start from scratch are never the execs who fucked everything up in the first place

    • @jerbear7952
      @jerbear7952 Рік тому +1

      It's other people's money

  • @Zarrx
    @Zarrx Рік тому +10

    mind boggling investors have this much money to lose

  • @gustavbrinkel5489
    @gustavbrinkel5489 Рік тому +3

    Hmmm, I enjoyed working at the offices. Even if a bit cringy, they were a world away from the tepid hired offices before. It was just MASSIVELY overvalued.

  • @ToughLovePapi
    @ToughLovePapi Рік тому +6

    “Now, as devastating as this probably is for KOMBUCHA DRINKERS around the world” 💀

  • @MatameVideos
    @MatameVideos Рік тому +2

    The stupidest thing about wework wasn't the way it feel or from how high it did fall, but rather how it raised up in the first place.

  • @MrNightpwner
    @MrNightpwner Рік тому +7

    The way i see wework is as the luxurification of office buildings. Better said, it's just turning them into a single franchise. It's a horrible and expensive idea in general as it removes competition and forces a certain interior design style on everyone. Every wework i delievered to looked the same. Not an important note but one that is a bad sign to me.

    • @chowsquid
      @chowsquid Рік тому +2

      You can pretty much say the same for most office buildings.
      Most medical offices look the same. No lobby. Elevator…hallways of offices…

  • @JohnRambo-nv9vn
    @JohnRambo-nv9vn Рік тому +23

    We need a series for DCF valuation.

    • @benchoflemons398
      @benchoflemons398 Рік тому +13

      Take cash flow
      Discount back
      End

    • @will9134
      @will9134 Рік тому

      @@benchoflemons398but at what discount rate?!?!?

    • @will9134
      @will9134 Рік тому

      @@David-jn5up you just summarized sell-side Investment Banking to a tee.

  • @taterkaze9428
    @taterkaze9428 Рік тому +8

    Adam Neuman and SBF are proof VCs have no idea what they're doing, they just gamble with OPM.

    • @charlesferdinand422
      @charlesferdinand422 Рік тому

      Curiously, both Neumann and SBF are Hebrew too (explains their natural sociopathy and greed).

  • @Allen-L-Canada
    @Allen-L-Canada Рік тому +3

    Hindsight is 20/20. but I am asking myself:"Would have I been able to know right from the beginning that the business model is flawed?

  • @unnamedny
    @unnamedny Рік тому +10

    I used to work for wework, build their offices in NYC. Whatever shenanigans general public knows about wework it's just a tip of the iceberg of what was actually happening.

  • @Asiaguydude
    @Asiaguydude Рік тому +3

    Their month to month business model ran the company into the ground during economic downturn.

  • @michaelmarlow6610
    @michaelmarlow6610 Рік тому +3

    It’s just really hard for me to feel bad for people falling for one of the dumbest and most obvious frauds

  • @Teisharocz
    @Teisharocz Рік тому +1

    Love the language segment!!! A second or third is so important nowadays, ur mom still loves you! ❤

  • @HarithBK
    @HarithBK Рік тому +8

    WeWork did do something in the leasing space by making it much much easier to rent space in multiple cities in a modern fashion for much smaller tenants. had the company grown slower and with more consideration to what they lease they had a great chance at being a profitable company.
    instead venture capitalist pumped it shock full of money which the CEO blew every chance he got. but it is not illegal since the financial reports they handed to investors laid this out in the open (i have read one that was handed out to investors about WeWork financial situation and it was clear as day like 6-7 years ago that the founder was just pissing away the money and the company would never turn a profit.)

  • @Spinattitude
    @Spinattitude Рік тому +22

    Somebody please explain to me why anyone would invest in Adam Neuman's new "venture."

    • @Grubiantoll
      @Grubiantoll Рік тому +5

      people invest in known crypto scamers new scams, or known financial scamers new crpto scams
      hard to say why

    • @SoWhat1221
      @SoWhat1221 Рік тому +4

      The same reason someone might knowingly invest in a pyramid scheme: Early investors get rich, later investors get screwed.

    • @richardbloemenkamp8532
      @richardbloemenkamp8532 Рік тому +3

      You just need to get out at the same time as he does.

    • @mamotalemankoe3775
      @mamotalemankoe3775 Рік тому

      I suspect many VCs operate sophisticated pump and dumps. They hype up some bs company with a gimmick and distracting leader to hide their mediocre numbers, then once the time is right, they list, dump the shares and move on to the next bucket of shit. Just a hunch, I simply refuse to believe people who seem to be THAT stupid passed high school, let alone manage billions in capital.

  • @jacobprice2579
    @jacobprice2579 Рік тому +8

    Guys, have I slipped into a Mandela effect? I could swear we went through this exact same drama with wework in 2020???

    • @Hunteriffic86
      @Hunteriffic86 Рік тому +5

      I think that was the IPO failure and Neumann's departure that you're thinking of

  • @therealdylanlenton
    @therealdylanlenton Рік тому +2

    As an Ottawa resident who has grandparents from Gaspesie (Escuminac Represent!) very fun to know you have a similar background.

  • @lanceareadbhar
    @lanceareadbhar 6 місяців тому

    I love how these stories keep emerging and yet many people still think that just because you currently run a successful business that means that you must be really smart.
    Obviously some smart people do run successful businesses, but that doesn't mean that running a successful business proves that they are smart.

  • @XX-xv6xe
    @XX-xv6xe Рік тому +1

    I can remember their spac deal, I thought the business idea sounded like the dumbest idea every and couldn’t figure out why everyone on WSB was in love with it.

  • @prw56
    @prw56 Рік тому +6

    I'm optimistic that this will encourage the affected areas to make some changes in order to make available real estate more attractive to people other than blind investors, whether that means addressing some of the excessive bureaucracy in places like new york, or revising zoning regulations so that the spaces can be used as something other than office space, or some new adventurous strategy that I can't think of.
    I'd be interested in a video that explains how these startups have such high valuations in the face of such obvious issues (yea I know its even more obvious in hindsight, but they never explained how they were going to be different from other short term lease industries, like ever, yet people still bought in).

    • @kray3883
      @kray3883 Рік тому

      You are an optimist. I'm sure certain people out there are learning the real lesson of WW: never own anything. Always be Uber or AirBnB and put the risk on other people. I am just waiting for AirBnB to pivot to being a platform matching people looking for short term office leases to building owners who have absolutely nothing else they can do with their offices. Giving those owners just enough hope that they will continue to drag out the inevitable collapse, keeping all that floor space tied up in useless office space for absolutely as long as possible.
      I'm almost afraid to write this but I'm sure that if I've thought of it other people with the money to make it happen are already working on it anyway...

  • @gladeous4161
    @gladeous4161 Рік тому +3

    Only the best run companies will resort to SPACs...lol. Don't know what the stat is but the failure rate on companies using SPAC is quite high. I've seen so many go down. Stay far away from these companies.

  • @genehenson8851
    @genehenson8851 Рік тому +3

    Obvsiously easy to say this in hindsight, but that mission statement should have been a huge red flag to any investors. At least Adam is going to be OK.

  • @hewhohasnoidentity4377
    @hewhohasnoidentity4377 Рік тому +27

    This is what happens when interest rates are so low for so long. There was a massive amount of money that had to go somewhere.
    It could go anywhere as long as the lower 90% could not access it.

    • @sebastianlucas704
      @sebastianlucas704 Рік тому +2

      The issue was incompetentence, not low interest rates.

    • @Laotzu.Goldbug
      @Laotzu.Goldbug Рік тому

      ​@@sebastianlucas704they were not mutually exclusive. it was incompetent people having access to too much money due to the artificially low cost of borrowing. it's both.

  • @David-nx2vm
    @David-nx2vm 10 місяців тому

    There was another unintended consequence here - the “We-Workification” of company office spaces when moving, expanding, or remodeling. We-Work was the trendy flavor-of-the-month, so others copied it. Instead of places of business, many commercial office spaces now resemble giant airline frequent flyer lounges where so-called collaborative space is often just a mega-sized water cooler for gossip and BS’ing, and little gets accomplished because of lack of privacy, excessive background noise, and distractions from foosball tables and TV sets. To make room for all that flotsam and jetsam, actual employee horizontal work space was reduced to as little as 40 square feet, packed into wall-less cubicles like sardines. No wonder millions did not want to return to that after the pandemic.

  • @yagami931
    @yagami931 Рік тому +1

    I was really rather confused when Softbank (or probably just Son to be exact) went so hard into WeWork because I didn't really see anything about the company that really made it tech, revolutionary, or otherwise truly ground-breaking... but at that time I just assumed Son must have known or seen something about the company I simply couldn't comprehend. I certainly didn't expect it to turn into a huge black eye for Son but well... here we are.

  • @lliamjurdom9505
    @lliamjurdom9505 Рік тому +9

    The stench of Adam Neumann is quite unbearable and he's coming back to do it all over again.

    • @Allen-L-Canada
      @Allen-L-Canada Рік тому

      one wuold be a fool to give him captical again. fool me twice......

  • @Wezelkonijn
    @Wezelkonijn Рік тому +6

    A collapsable heel and baby jeans?

  • @helpyourcattodrive
    @helpyourcattodrive Рік тому +1

    When I looked at a location it seemed kind of like a coffee shop in a way. I like privacy, so their concept would never have interested me either way.

  • @Rapscallion2009
    @Rapscallion2009 5 місяців тому +1

    A lot of startups seem to be like this. Fire it up, extract money from ignorant investors for a few years by presenting the company as the next google/Facebook/messiah/phase of humanity/plane of existence or whatever and syphon off stuff into the CEO's pockets. Declare bankruptcy due to "external forces". Buy private island with the "personal funds" acquired.
    WeWork isn't an entirely bad idea, but needs to be run very lean as margins are thin.

  • @fredk9999
    @fredk9999 Рік тому

    Thank you to our host. Had no idea.

  • @catriona_drummond
    @catriona_drummond Рік тому +2

    Interest rates were too low during the last deacade. thus capital too cheap. so gigantic misallocations of money happened. I regard a 5% base interest rate as healthy for the economy. excesses like this can always happen but it's a lot less likely if there is a healthy mix of investment opportunities.

  • @stephenjones8928
    @stephenjones8928 5 місяців тому

    Too many entities out there with too much money looted from the rest of us looking to loot even more from everyone with as little effort as possible. We only hear about it when the gamble fails.

  • @shantanusapru
    @shantanusapru Рік тому +7

    SoftBank (Son) seems to have a preternatural knack for sniffing out losers & companies which flop big!😆😆

  • @srosegold
    @srosegold 6 місяців тому

    I drive past WeWork buildings in Atlanta all the time and my first thought is always what do they actually do? And how did they survive Covid if offices were empty? This was inevitable

  • @sor3999
    @sor3999 7 місяців тому

    The fact that the other investors pumped up WeWorks valuation before IPO shows they wanted to fleece everyone too. They probably already knew about their CEO's conflict of interest, but needed to offload a bad company onto the public. I find it hard to believe that they saw a sub-leasing company and thought it was a good idea. Whenever you bring up WeWork's business model to anyone just about anyone thinks it's a dumb idea. It's always... "why don't they just own the building in the first place?"

    • @samsonsoturian6013
      @samsonsoturian6013 5 місяців тому

      How do you think these obvious ponzi schemes find "victims?" A low-risk crime is to jump onto someone else's scam and co-promote it unsolicited, and if it crashes you can pretend to be a victim.

  • @WHATISUTUBE
    @WHATISUTUBE Рік тому +1

    I sat through the ad at the end. Entertaining stuff

  • @DWDAmateur
    @DWDAmateur Рік тому +1

    This is an incredible piece of journalism. Aprreciate your channel.

  • @FinnorXTube
    @FinnorXTube Рік тому +1

    I have a startup and I hate coworking. Always thought this is a awful bussiness. No wonder it fails.

  • @nates1092
    @nates1092 10 місяців тому

    The core business is subletting office space for shorter terms to companies that cannot commit to long-term leases. This type of arrangement can only work for small startups who may not have enough capital and will need to conserve funds. Pre-COVID, I could not believe there were that many potential customers in WeWork’s target market that would justify its expenditures. And with increasing remote work over the last few years, the demand for this office subletting arrangement had significantly decreased. This business model simply never made sense.

  • @Red-in-Green
    @Red-in-Green 7 місяців тому

    The crawlers thing is so hilarious to me. What do you mean “Just because they don’t tell you, doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt”? Babies can tell you 2 things: I’m hungry, and I hurt. If it hurts, they scream. It’s the first thing they can do! And they are not shy about telling you it hurts!

  • @Trag3dyInV3nus
    @Trag3dyInV3nus 6 місяців тому

    I never understood why people would think this would work. It makes no sense

  • @muffemod
    @muffemod Рік тому +7

    WE BROKE

  • @DtWolfwood
    @DtWolfwood 11 місяців тому +1

    Seems like if you have a charismatic ceo running a company, that it's a red flag...

  • @WmsYTpage
    @WmsYTpage 7 місяців тому +1

    If he screwed up so badly and is such an obvious scammer, then HOW could he get a lot of these same investors (ie: Softbank) to invest in him AGAIN?? There must be some Rasputin-level mind control going on here.

  • @tamjeanell
    @tamjeanell Рік тому +1

    Wework was an adult playground...more serious businesses were never going to be on board...

  • @Swingking1977
    @Swingking1977 Рік тому +4

    And the irony advert for wework, when I pressed on this video!!