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Billion dollar loser : the epic rise and spectacular fall of Adam Neumann and WeWork / Reeves Wiedeman.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York ; Boston ; London : Little, Brown and Company, 2020Edition: First editionDescription: viii, 341 pages ; 25 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780316461368
  • 0316461369
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
Contents:
Capitalist kibbutz -- Green desk -- 154 Grand Street -- "I am WeWork" -- Sex, coworking, and rock 'n' roll -- The physical social network -- Reality distortion field -- Greater fools -- WeLive -- Manage the nickel -- Mr. Ten Times -- Me over we -- Blitzscaling -- The holy grail -- WeGrow -- Game of thrones -- Operationalize love -- A WeWork wedding -- Fortitude -- The I in we -- Wingspan -- Always half full -- The sun never sets on We -- Brave new world.
Summary: The inside story of the rise and fall of WeWork, showing how the excesses of its founder shaped a corporate culture unlike any other. Christened a potential savior of Silicon Valley's startup culture, Adam Neumann was set to take WeWork, his office share company disrupting the commercial real estate market, public, cash out on the company's 47 billion dollar valuation, and break the string of major startups unable to deliver to shareholders. But as employees knew, and investors soon found out, WeWork's capital was built on promises that the company was more than a real estate purveyor, that in fact it was a transformational technology company. Veteran journalist Reeves Wiedeman dives deep into WeWork and it CEO's astronomical rise, from the marijuana and tequila-filled board rooms to cult-like company summer camps and consciousness-raising with Anthony Kiedis. Billion Dollar Loser is a character-driven business narrative that captures, through the fascinating psyche of a billionaire founder and his wife and co-founder, the slippery state of global capitalism.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Dr. James Carlson Library NonFiction 333.3309 W644 Checked out 05/04/2024 33111009767118
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 333.3309 W644 Available 33111010432207
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A Wall Street Journal Business Bestseller

"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 WeWork's CEO built and grew his company along with Neumann's 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 WeWork's botched IPO and Neumann's dramatic ouster, Wiedeman exposes the story of the company's 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 Trump's first term, and also offers a sober reckoning with its fallout as a new era begins.

"Portions of this book appeared in articles published in New York magazine and its website"--Title page verso.

Includes index.

Capitalist kibbutz -- Green desk -- 154 Grand Street -- "I am WeWork" -- Sex, coworking, and rock 'n' roll -- The physical social network -- Reality distortion field -- Greater fools -- WeLive -- Manage the nickel -- Mr. Ten Times -- Me over we -- Blitzscaling -- The holy grail -- WeGrow -- Game of thrones -- Operationalize love -- A WeWork wedding -- Fortitude -- The I in we -- Wingspan -- Always half full -- The sun never sets on We -- Brave new world.

The inside story of the rise and fall of WeWork, showing how the excesses of its founder shaped a corporate culture unlike any other. Christened a potential savior of Silicon Valley's startup culture, Adam Neumann was set to take WeWork, his office share company disrupting the commercial real estate market, public, cash out on the company's 47 billion dollar valuation, and break the string of major startups unable to deliver to shareholders. But as employees knew, and investors soon found out, WeWork's capital was built on promises that the company was more than a real estate purveyor, that in fact it was a transformational technology company. Veteran journalist Reeves Wiedeman dives deep into WeWork and it CEO's astronomical rise, from the marijuana and tequila-filled board rooms to cult-like company summer camps and consciousness-raising with Anthony Kiedis. Billion Dollar Loser is a character-driven business narrative that captures, through the fascinating psyche of a billionaire founder and his wife and co-founder, the slippery state of global capitalism.

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