BILLION DOLLAR LOSER: THE EPIC RISE AND FALL OF WEWORK

The “Billion Dollar Loser” chronicles the history of WeWork and its founder, Adam Neumann, mainly from the beginnings of WeWork to the failed IPO. While Wiedeman acknowledges Adam’s ambitious persona and the possibility that he may be back sometime in the future, the book largely focuses on his hubris that eventually led to the collapse of the IPO process and to his sacking from the company he founded, poking fun at Neumann and his wife, Rebekah, along the way.While following the WeWork story as it unfolded, I was amazed at the strategy of venture capital investors such as SoftBank and the book reinforces that feeling tremendously. While I can understand how early investors were willing to take a bet that a simple real-estate leasing model can become a “physical social network” (in Adam’s words), it’s mind boggling that an investor could pump in $10 billion at a later stage, especially when the founder spouted inanities such as “we used the work mission to enter into the larger category of life”, had a mission statement “to elevate the world’s consciousness” and pointed to financial parameters such as “return on community” and valuations based on the company’s energy and spirituality rather than on revenue (my favourite was the concept of “community-adjusted EBITDA)! Also, a part of SoftBank’s investment gave Adam a sizeable exit for himself.The WeWork story highlights the many issues with modern-day venture capital investing, which appears to be based on the “greater fool theory of finance”, as Wiedeman points out. There is too much money to be deployed rationally (SoftBank had raised $100 bn in its Vision Fund). The entrepreneurs with the most chutzpah and ambitions, however impossible the ambitions may be, are preferred to their more solid but conservative peers, and in the process, the latter’s genuine business models are often wiped out. Unlike a traditional model where valuations follow the success of a business model, companies such as WeWork have had to pivot their model often to justify the lofty valuations that they commanded early on. And venture capitalists are willing to turn a blind eye to serious governance issues such as conflicts of interest or blatant nepotism. This issue was best summarised by Jake Schwartz, one of of Adam’s early competitors: “the reason I care is that if the most successful companies are the ones that just drive really hard, and play fast and loose with the truth, then maybe the whole idea that capitalism is great, or even useful, is really challenging to uphold.”My benchmark for a great biography is Walter Isaacson’s one on Steve Jobs (on a separate note, I can’t wait for him to finish the one on Elon Musk). Jobs was a multi-faceted character and the biography brings out the various nuances of his life — the good ones and the bad ones. On the other hand, Adam comes out as a unidimensional person in this book, all bombast and hubris, and that was a slight disappointment.Pros: Details the rise and fall of WeWork well, gripping especially towards the latter part of the bookCons: A unidimensional portrait

Although based on real events, this book reads like some thrilling action packed screenplay where not a single character or moment is boring. It won't be surprising if this book is adapted into some limited series or a movie by Netflix or prime video.

Five star rating is not for the content but for the way it is written.For people who are familiar with Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes this may be a kind of deja vu. While Holmes is facing criminal charges, at WeWork the investor and investee are the ones who perpetrated the crime in collaboration.Therefore no one goes to jail.The book captures 10 year history of start,rise,rise and meteoric fall of WeWork.It vividly brings out how investors after investors are sucked into vortex of valuation game not based on authentic numbers but on the founder's smart glib talk.Eventually some big sucker will have to pay for all the past demeanours but in this case the big sucker is the one who is also one of the causes for the company's downfall.Excellent read if you want to know about new age capitalism and Venture Capital ecosystem.

The book is not too bad - it's reasonably well written and moderately interesting. More input from WeWork's co-founders and more insights from those who actually rented WeWork's offices might have made the book a bit more interesting. Still, it's an okay read, so go for it.

The book gives great insights into the insides workings of WeWork. From the very beginning of the journey, WeWork was over valued, and then came along Masayoshi Son from SoftBank who’s own “three hundred years vision” was grander than that of Adam’s. Overall, this was a great read on how not to run a company and hopefully a learning lesson for VCs and Sovereign wealth funds. Capitalism and greed at its worst.

AWESOME Book. Well written. covers the professional and personal aspect.The book is one and all.LOTS to learn from the book. Lots to learn on mistakes which we must not commit when successful

For a beginner, reading a business oriented book for the first time, I think the author has made it as simple as he could. Apart from the business part of it, the book also gives a clear message, to know your limits and embrace them, and with this acknowledgment, grow.

Reeves Wiedeman turns his insightful gaze to unbridled march of capitalism, unchecked by corporate governance structures. Adam ‘s rise and fall is a story that deserves to dissected and discussed in B-schools across the globe, learnings, captured so vividly in the book, imparted to budding entrepreneurs

having read a lot of business books, i would say that billion dollar loser isn't one of the more interesting ones i have read. the story almost feels like someone who has summarized a bunch of articles on the company from the time it was founded to the time its IPO floundered. there just wasn't that much depth in character development, or an explanation of deep underlying structural trends that would have made the book more like a "big short" type of book or a "smartest guy in the room". perhaps the subject material just wasn't that great as well and the story of adam neumann was a simple "con-man" meets too much money type of story. overall felt like eating white bread than eating a thickly crusted sourdough bread.

Excellent and interesting read of the company that became (or always was) a giant pyramid scheme!Thoroughly researched and told in captivating details and hard to put down!It really makes you see how much Venture Capital is all smoke and mirrors and a game of pass the parcel, just not wanting to be the person that gets landed with opening it and seeing what you have really actually bought!A real case of "The Emperor's New Clothes", except there was more than one emperor here and lots of friends and family, that weren't left holding the baby, before they were able to cash in!Thank goodness in the end thousands of ordinary investors weren't left holding the baby, but still thousands of Wework employees, never got their promised share riches after working long extra hours on relatively low pay!The author should be commended on a great book!

I enjoyed this and the book passes my Beach Read Test. What makes for the better read: a tale of success - or a tale of failure? Probably the latter, like this one. The tale is very well told and WeWork's IPO problems are probably far enough below the radar horizon of most readers so that this book will have an appeal beyond the massed ranks of investors. Ultimately, this is a story of a man who was more style than substance. It was shocking to see just how many people were willing to throw their billions at him. After finishing this book, I was minded to buy one about Elon Musk's ascent.P.S. My favourite book of this genre remains 'All That Glitters' by Gapper.

The retelling of the vision and collapse reminds me of the Emperor and his new clothes story - is it something no-one else can see or genuinely just nothing there. It feels maybe not as simple as that as it’s easy in the context of essentially a collapse of what was envisaged to say there was never anything there but could it have ended up differently; how many other tech companies and their founders are just able to ride circumstances better? The narrative did feel a little one-sided so although fascinating window onto the high profile story hard to draw sensible conclusions

The book is a good piece of investigative journalism. The fall of WeWork was in part due to hedonism and disillusion of founder Adam Neumann, but as the book implies, the company excessive growth and money burning behaviour were very much encouraged by the venture capitalists, whose FOMO has led to thoughtless pouring of capital into unicorn wannabes. The writing makes it an easy and enjoyable read. Would recommend anyone who wants to learn more about start-ups and the VC funding world.