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Billion Dollar Loser
Billion Dollar Loser: The Epic Rise and Spectacular Fall of Adam Neumann and WeWork | Reeves Wiedeman
3 posts | 3 read | 1 reading | 6 to read
Vivid, carefully reported drama that readers will gulp down as if it were a fast-paced novel (Ken Auletta) ? the inside story of WeWork and its CEO, Adam Neumann, which tells the remarkable saga of one of the most audacious, and improbable, rises and falls in American business history In its earliest days, WeWork promised the impossible: to make the American work place cool. Adam Neumann, an immigrant determined to make his fortune in the United States, landed on the idea of repurposing surplus New York office space for the burgeoning freelance class. Over the course of ten years, WeWork attracted billions of dollars from some of the most sought-after investors in the world, while spending it to build a global real estate empire that he insisted was much more than that: an organization that aspired to nothing less than "elevating the world's consciousness." Moving between New York real estate, Silicon Valley venture capital, and the very specific force field of spirituality and ambition erected by Adam Neumann himself, Billion Dollar Loser lays bare the internal drama inside WeWork. Based on more than two hundred interviews, this book chronicles the breakneck speed at which WeWorks CEO built and grew his company along with Neumanns relationship to a world of investors, including Masayoshi Son of Softbank, who fueled its chaotic expansion into everything from apartment buildings to elementary schools. Culminating in a day-by-day account of the five weeks leading up to WeWorks botched IPO and Neumanns dramatic ouster, Wiedeman exposes the story of the companys desperate attempt to secure the funding it needed in the final moments of a decade defined by excess. Billion Dollar Loser is the first book to indelibly capture the highly leveraged, all-blue-sky world of American business in President Trumps first term, and also offers a sober reckoning with its fallout as a new era begins.
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Verity
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Pickpick

So it‘s not quite Bad Blood and We Work isn‘t quite Theranos, but it‘s still a really interesting story of a modern business implosion, even if the writing sometimes gets a little bogged down.

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Verity
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Current read: I have high hopes for this - I love a deep dive into a troubled unicorn!

Kimberlone Looking forward to the documentary coming out on the same subject! 4y
Verity @Kimberlone can‘t. Wait. 4y
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Megabooks
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Adam Neumann is a study in contradictions. Raised on a kibbutz in Israel, he came to lead one of the 2010s biggest “tech” unicorns, WeWork. Similar to the more well known Elizabeth Holmes, he raised big money through a series of private investment with a flimsy premise. WeWork was really nothing more than what many other office rental companies were, but through charisma Adam created more until investors saw through the smoke and mirrors. 👍🏻👍🏻

CoffeeK8 This sounds great! 4y
Megabooks @CoffeeK8 it was fascinating! Definitely a good choice for readers who enjoyed 4y
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CoffeeK8 @Megabooks I loved bad blood. Did you read the audiobook Thicker Than Water by Tyler Schultz (the bad blood whistleblower) (edited) 4y
Megabooks @CoffeeK8 yes I did! It was fantastic. I also enjoyed the HBO documentary The Inventor. 4y
CoffeeK8 @Megabooks I still have to watch that! 4y
Cinfhen It‘s in my wishlist cart!! Excited to hear it‘s similar to Bad Blood!!!! Will definitely be listening soon!! Thanks for the tag 4y
Megabooks @Cinfhen it was interesting how he brought a lot of pop/celebrity Kabbalah into the office. He seemed to pick and choose, at various points in time, parts of Judaism to follow. He was raised in Israel in some type of (unnamed) mainstream Judaism but “followed” the more mystical parts at WeWork. Interestingly, when he was pushed out as CEO, he and fam moved to Tel Aviv, so maybe you‘ve run into him and not known it! Probably not, but you never know 4y
Cinfhen He‘s pretty much a pariah in the Jewish community \ he was one of those people who were ALL FLASH NO CASH ....He showed up at all these BIG CHARITY events ,pledged HUGE sums of money but apparently never followed through. We know several people who have had personal and financial interactions with him. It‘s a crazy story (edited) 4y
Megabooks @Cinfhen I think you meant pariah, but piranha seems as apt if he‘s all take and no give! You‘ll be interested to read, if you don‘t already know, all the ridiculous things he spent business and personal money on. His rider alone for one event read longer than many rock stars that I‘ve read! What you‘ve said does not surprise me at all after reading this!!! 4y
Cinfhen Hahaha... Gotta love autocorrect and my atrocious spelling xxx 4y
Cinfhen How was the narration??? 4y
Cinfhen Who reads?? 4y
Megabooks @Cinfhen lol right re: spelling! The narration is excellent!!! Will Collyer, who is is one of my fav male narrators, does it. 4y
Megabooks @Cinfhen okay going to try to put away my phone and audiobook and sleep...we‘ll see! I don‘t have blue light blocking on my glasses, so that doesn‘t really help me in the sleep department. Next pair for sure! 4y
Cinfhen Sweet dreams xx 4y
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