WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER A FINANCIAL TIMES FORTUNE AND NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR “The riveting definitive account of WeWork one of the wildest business stories of our time ”—Matt Levine Money Stuff columnist Bloomberg Opinion The definitive story of the rise and fall of WeWork also depicted in the upcoming Apple TV series WeCrashed starring Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway by the real life journalists whose Wall Street Journal reporting rocked the company and exposed a financial system drunk on the elixir of Silicon Valley innovation LONGLISTED FOR THE FINANCIAL TIMES AND MCKINSEY BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD WeWork would be worth 10 trillion more than any other company in the world It wasn’t just an office space provider It was a tech company—an AI startup even Its WeGrow schools and WeLive residences would revolutionize education and housing One day mused founder Adam Neumann a Middle East peace accord would be signed in a WeWork The company might help colonize Mars And Neumann would become the world’s first trillionaire This was the vision of Neumann and his primary cheerleader SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son In hindsight their ambition for the company whose primary business was subletting desks in slickly designed offices seems like madness Why did so many intelligent people—from venture capitalists to Wall Street elite—fall for the hype? And how did WeWork go so wrong? In little more than a decade Neumann transformed himself from a struggling baby clothes salesman into the charismatic hard partying CEO of a company worth 47 billion—on paper With his long hair and feel good mantras the six foot five Israeli transplant looked the part of a messianic truth teller Investors swooned and billions poured in Neumann dined with the CEOs of JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs entertaining a parade of power brokers desperate to get a slice of what he was selling: the country’s most valuable startup a once in a lifetime opportunity and a generation defining moment Soon however WeWork was burning through cash faster than Neumann could bring it in From his private jet sometimes clouded with marijuana smoke he scoured the globe for more capital Then as WeWork readied a Hail Mary IPO it all fell apart Nearly 40 billion of value vaporized in one of corporate America’s most spectacular meltdowns Peppered with eye popping never before reported details The Cult of We is the gripping story of careless and often absurd people—and the financial system they have made
