WeCrashed: Where is WeWork founder Adam Neumann now?
Jared Leto plays the co-founder of the American start-up in Apple TV’s latest drama
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Your support makes all the difference.WeCrashed, the drama about WeWork starring Anne Hathaway and Jared Leto, arrived on Apple TV on 18 March.
Leto plays the company’s co-founder, Adam Neumann, with Hathaway portraying his wife Rebekah.
The eight-episode series chronicles the “meteoric rise and equally dramatic fall” of the co-working space start-up company, and is based on the Wondery podcast of the same name.
The show tells the story of how, in 2010, Neumann and architect Miguel McKelvey founded the shared-workspace company, in response to the rising trend in freelancing.
WeWork grew quickly. Soon after it launched in New York it was officially a “unicorn” – a name given by investors to any start-up valued at over $1bn (approximately £765m).
The company opened hundreds of new locations across North America, Europe and Israel, and expanded into other industries, with luxury gyms (Rise by We), private schools (WeGrow) and co-living accommodation (WeLive). By January 2019, WeWork was valued at $47bn (approximately £36bn).
In September 2019, everything came crashing down. WeWork was about to transition from private to public ownership and would have to make its messy internal finances public. It was losing $219,000 (£167,000) an hour, couldn’t even afford to sack staff, as it couldn’t pay their severance packages. On 24 September 2019, Neumann was forced to resign as CEO.
So what has he been doing since?
As Neumann exited WeWork, he negotiated with initial investor Softbank. The majority owner of WeWork paid him nearly $200m (153m) for consulting and other fees, and bought $578m (£442m) of shares from him, according to WeWork securities filings.
Neumann then used that fortune to quietly build a huge network of over 4,000 apartments in Miami, Atlanta, Nashville, and other US cities.
According to The Wall Street Journal, “Neumann has told friends and associates of his ambitions to build a company that would shake up the rental-housing industry, say people familiar with the matter”.
WeCrashed is out now on Apple TV.
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