Introducing Foundering

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.

Foundering premieres June 25, 2020. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Everyone was too bright eyed and too eager, and they
we chanted, we work, we chanted, we work, we work,
and then we hit a gong. Not that long ago,
Adam Newman was one of the most successful startup founders
in the world. He was a visionary leader who said

(00:23):
he was going to overturn a trillion dollar industry and
we Work. We really strive to help you as much
as we can. Focus on doing what you love, create
your life's work, and let us figure of the rest.
Venture capitalists were falling all over themselves to invest in
his company. We Work has revolutionized the leasing of office space.
Ten billion dollars invest in this company. It's the second

(00:46):
largest venture capital investment of all time. He ran the
most valuable startup in America, and he pitched that he
was going to revolutionize your work life. It sells fun.
I mean, it's cells excitement. You don't even have to
go out to a bar club. We will bring that
all to your office space where you sit and do work.

(01:08):
The bar is now at your desk. So when you
first walked in, you're like, dude, this place is awesome,
Like what is going on? But as Adam raised more
and more money, things started to get strange. You know,
if Adam was coming down the hall, it's like every
executive's butthole titans, Like everybody just got really like, oh

(01:29):
my god. He started saying things like he wanted to
live forever be the president of the world. We work
with nothing without Adam Newman. Right, No one wasn't investing
in we Work. They're investing in Adam Newman. But I
think we fall in love with these personalities. And the
Emperor wears no clothes, and in the span of just
a few weeks everything changed. Office space startup we Work

(01:52):
has officially postponed a plan to go public if we
Work as having trouble finding investor demand at one third
of the forty seven billion dollar price tag. That the
real concern is Adam Newman, the CEO. Everything is on him.
His performance will determine this What went wrong? Will take
you inside the company with interviews from people who helped

(02:13):
build we Work and exclusive tapes of internal meetings where
Adam talks to his employees in ways he'd never speak
in public. None of us want to look back and
say I could have done more, This could have been bigger,
This couldn't been better. That's not acceptable. You do not
get a chance like this again, None of us do.
This is a new podcast from Bloomberg Technology called Foundering.

(02:37):
This season will tell you the story of We Work,
a company that captured the startup boom of and also
may be remembered as a spectacular bust that marked the
end of an era. We'll take you into headquarters and
inside the mind of the man at the center of
it all, Adam Newman. Why he built We Worked, the

(02:57):
way he did, what happened to the company, and what
might happen next. Think about the long term consequences of
what this coronavirus has done. Curious what this means for
we Work now. We Work is known for crowding people
together in one shared workspace. Check us out Foundering, a
new show from Bloomberg Technology. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or

(03:19):
wherever you get your podcasts.