The Catastrophic Story Of WeWork - Reeves Wiedeman - #238

**Chris Williamson** (0:00)
Oh yes, hello people in Podcastland. Welcome back. My guest today is Reeves wiedeman, and we are talking about the catastrophic downfall of WeWork. At one point, WeWork was one of the world's highest ever valued private companies. Now, it's in free fall. So today, expect to learn why WeWork was so overvalued, where it got all its capital from, the fundamental flaw in the business model, how personality and charm can overcome objections, what we can learn from Silicon Valley's biggest failures and much more. I've spent a fair bit of time learning about WeWork and Adam Neumann, the ex-CEO over the last couple of years. And to get this, there's something so compelling about it. I really don't know what it is, but I hope that you find it as interesting and enjoyable as I did. Don't forget, if you haven't picked up a copy of my Ultimate Life Hacks list yet, then what are you doing? Head to chriswillx.com/lifehacks and you can get the free ebook today with over 200 ways that you can upgrade your life instantly. chriswillx.com/lifehacks. You can download it before I finish doing this intro. It's linked in the show notes below. Go press the button and you'll also join my 3-minute Monday newsletter where every Monday, I upgrade your life in three minutes or less, including an insight from whatever I've been learning or thinking about that week, a preview of all of the upcoming podcast episodes, three lessons that I've discovered from the wild and wonderful world of the internet, and a life hack. Another one, sometimes a new one, sometimes revisiting an old one, chriswillx.com/lifehacks. Go and pick yourself up the free ebook and you'll get added to my 3-minute Monday newsletter. But for now, it's time to learn about the slow motion car crash that was WeWork.
What have you spent the last couple of years researching?

**Reeves Wiedeman** (2:18)
Well, I've spent about the last year and a half researching WeWork, the company, and the last few years researching sort of the world of, I guess, high growth unicorn startups is one way of putting it, some of which have flamed out in one way or another, and some of which are still with us.

**Chris Williamson** (2:41)
Is WeWork classed as one of those unicorns? And what is a unicorn? For people that don't live in Silicon Valley, what's a unicorn?

**Reeves Wiedeman** (2:48)
Sure, well, there's unicorns, there's zebras, there's all kinds of different species now, but a unicorn simply is a company that, according to private valuations set by private investors, is worth more than a billion dollars. And, you know, there are now certainly more than a hundred of these kinds of companies, and WeWork, despite all its troubles, remains one of those.

**Chris Williamson** (3:20)
Those companies that are unicorns, are they still private or have some of those transitioned to now be traded?

**Reeves Wiedeman** (3:27)
Yeah, the typical way it's sort of looked at is these are, you know, they are magical creatures. They exist outside of the way the markets traditionally treat these companies. So, unicorns are generally companies that are private before they hit the stock market, which-

**Chris Williamson** (3:44)
And then you're no longer a unicorn once you do?

**Reeves Wiedeman** (3:47)
You're not. I don't know, like, what you transform into, exactly, in like the Silicon Valley nomenclature, but you, yeah, it's sort of like caterpillar butterfly thing, but I don't know what the next, like, transformation is.

**Chris Williamson** (4:01)
Got you. If anyone understands the Pokemon game that is Silicon Valley sufficiently well, what does the unicorn evolve? It's Charizard, isn't it? Charizard, and then you get the shiny one, and then that's everyone at school wants you cards.

**Reeves Wiedeman** (4:14)
Well, you're joking, I think, but truthfully, there is another group called adekacorn, and adekacorn is an even rarer breed of company that has a private valuation above $10 billion, and WeWork was one of those. I guess that is actually a qualification that the company has now lost.

**Chris Williamson** (4:42)
Who else is in that category of the adekacorn, do you know?

**Reeves Wiedeman** (4:45)
You know, I'd have to think. I mean, Airbnb is one that is sort of going public, has said, they're going public soon. I think Palantir, which also went public recently, is another one that would have classified. It's a pretty small group, and it has traditionally been kind of the biggest companies, the Ubers, the Lifts, and the WeWorks that reach that kind of threshold.

**Chris Williamson** (5:13)
Have you had a look at much to do with the electric scooter, lime and bird and all of this? There was a period, was it towards the start of last year, where they were doubling the valuation every six weeks, like all of them?