Latest / Masters in Business / Introducing Foundering
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Everyone was too bright eyed and too eager, and they
- 0:06Speaker 1: we chanted, we work, we chanted, we work, we work,
- 0:10Speaker 1: and then we hit a gong. Not that long ago,
- 0:15Speaker 1: Adam Newman was one of the most successful startup founders
- 0:18Speaker 1: in the world. He was a visionary leader who said
- 0:23Speaker 1: he was going to overturn a trillion dollar industry and
- 0:26Speaker 1: we Work. We really strive to help you as much
- 0:29Speaker 1: as we can. Focus on doing what you love, create
- 0:32Speaker 1: your life's work, and let us figure of the rest.
- 0:35Speaker 1: Venture capitalists were falling all over themselves to invest in
- 0:39Speaker 1: his company. We Work has revolutionized the leasing of office space.
- 0:43Speaker 1: Ten billion dollars invest in this company. It's the second
- 0:46Speaker 1: largest venture capital investment of all time. He ran the
- 0:51Speaker 1: most valuable startup in America, and he pitched that he
- 0:54Speaker 1: was going to revolutionize your work life. It sells fun.
- 0:59Speaker 1: I mean, it's cells excitement. You don't even have to
- 1:02Speaker 1: go out to a bar club. We will bring that
- 1:05Speaker 1: all to your office space where you sit and do work.
- 1:08Speaker 1: The bar is now at your desk. So when you
- 1:11Speaker 1: first walked in, you're like, dude, this place is awesome,
- 1:14Speaker 1: Like what is going on? But as Adam raised more
- 1:17Speaker 1: and more money, things started to get strange. You know,
- 1:21Speaker 1: if Adam was coming down the hall, it's like every
- 1:24Speaker 1: executive's butthole titans, Like everybody just got really like, oh
- 1:29Speaker 1: my god. He started saying things like he wanted to
- 1:32Speaker 1: live forever be the president of the world. We work
- 1:36Speaker 1: with nothing without Adam Newman. Right, No one wasn't investing
- 1:38Speaker 1: in we Work. They're investing in Adam Newman. But I
- 1:41Speaker 1: think we fall in love with these personalities. And the
- 1:44Speaker 1: Emperor wears no clothes, and in the span of just
- 1:47Speaker 1: a few weeks everything changed. Office space startup we Work
- 1:52Speaker 1: has officially postponed a plan to go public if we
- 1:55Speaker 1: Work as having trouble finding investor demand at one third
- 1:58Speaker 1: of the forty seven billion dollar price tag. That the
- 2:01Speaker 1: real concern is Adam Newman, the CEO. Everything is on him.
- 2:04Speaker 1: His performance will determine this What went wrong? Will take
- 2:09Speaker 1: you inside the company with interviews from people who helped
- 2:13Speaker 1: build we Work and exclusive tapes of internal meetings where
- 2:17Speaker 1: Adam talks to his employees in ways he'd never speak
- 2:20Speaker 1: in public. None of us want to look back and
- 2:23Speaker 1: say I could have done more, This could have been bigger,
- 2:26Speaker 1: This couldn't been better. That's not acceptable. You do not
- 2:29Speaker 1: get a chance like this again, None of us do.
- 2:32Speaker 1: This is a new podcast from Bloomberg Technology called Foundering.
- 2:37Speaker 1: This season will tell you the story of We Work,
- 2:40Speaker 1: a company that captured the startup boom of and also
- 2:44Speaker 1: may be remembered as a spectacular bust that marked the
- 2:48Speaker 1: end of an era. We'll take you into headquarters and
- 2:52Speaker 1: inside the mind of the man at the center of
- 2:54Speaker 1: it all, Adam Newman. Why he built We Worked, the
- 2:57Speaker 1: way he did, what happened to the company, and what
- 3:00Speaker 1: might happen next. Think about the long term consequences of
- 3:04Speaker 1: what this coronavirus has done. Curious what this means for
- 3:07Speaker 1: we Work now. We Work is known for crowding people
- 3:10Speaker 1: together in one shared workspace. Check us out Foundering, a
- 3:14Speaker 1: new show from Bloomberg Technology. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or
- 3:19Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts.