In the Beginning There Was Adam...

March 14, 2022·25 min·2 clips

Adam Neumann gave a preacher-like graduation speech just before presiding over the largest wipeout of shareholder value since Enron.

The episode opens at Baruch College's June 2017 commencement, where Adam Neumann delivers the commencement address on the same day he receives his own long-delayed degree, 15 years after starting. Student Kwame Francis recalls the crowd fist-pumping as Adam preached about the 'we revolution.' Adam tells the story of how a friend's criticism in his early New York years pushed him to start his first business. He also shares that his grandmother Safda Esty's persistent requests for him to finish college finally motivated him to complete his degree. The narrator contextualizes Adam's commencement speech by noting he was about to preside over the largest and fastest wipeout of shareholder value since Enron. The episode then shifts back to 2010, when WeWork had just four employees and zero tenants at their first Soho location. Lisa Skye Hain, the founding community manager, recalls receiving an email at 1:20 a.m. on her first day telling her they were going to build the largest networking community on the planet. She describes doing every job from sales to IT to janitorial work. Co-founder Miguel McKelvey oversaw design, renting zip cars to haul soda-blasting equipment from New Jersey. Adam pushed his small team to open 17 offices in three weeks with a wait list. In fall 2010, the first building hosted 170 offices, 185 companies, and 350 members within six months. Adam's sales technique involved standing at windows and describing future gardens and gyms in empty lots below. In spring 2012, Silicon Valley investor Bruce Dunlevy visited WeWork and, after spending a full day with Adam, decided to invest despite concerns about valuation. When Dunlevy pushed back on the valuation, saying WeWork only had three buildings, Adam said he had hundreds — they just weren't built yet. WeWork's valuation jumped to nearly $100 million with that investment and quadrupled to over $400 million within a year. By 2013, WeWork was throwing annual summer camps in upstate New York for employees, featuring drinking, kayaking, and Adam's spiritual speeches. In February 2014, WeWork raised $150 million from investors including Mort Zuckerman and J.P. Morgan, achieving unicorn status at over $1.5 billion. At J.P. Morgan's Alternative Investment Summit in Miami in March 2014, NYU professor Scott Galloway interviewed Adam and came away unimpressed by his answers about competitive threats, describing them as 'yoga babble.' Galloway admits he was nevertheless impressed with Adam as a person and envied his position. The episode closes with a preview of coming episodes, hinting at the eventual collapse and the role played by Adam's wife Rebecca.

As heard by us

A startup origin story where ambition, labor, and performance share the same frame.

The episode begins at the packed June 2017 Baruch commencement at Barclays Center, with Adam Newman onstage as a graduating student, then folds back to WeWork's Soho opening, where dust, construction, soda blasting, Zipcar runs, desk assembly, and welcome notes set the scene.

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Why you'd press play

You watch WeWork's myth begin at a graduation speech and a dusty office buildout.

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