The positive impact of Adam Neumann 😊

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This week’s commentary is slightly different from my usual one. Please read on.

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The positive impact of Adam Neumann

Founders are an odd bunch, but WeWork’s Adam Neumann is probably an extreme example.

Just to list some of his notably weird moves:

• Leasing properties he owns back to the company
• Selling the naming rights – “The We Company” – to his own firm for US$6 million
• Purchasing a private jet for more than US$60 million even if The We Company is still highly unprofitable
• Firing 7% of his staff and then immediately bringing in rapper Darryl McDaniels of hip-hop group Run-D.M.C. for a performance and serving tequila after his layoff announcement 🤦

⇒ Read: Great founders often don’t make great CEOs

“This is not the way everybody behaves,” venture capitalist Dick Costolo told The Wall Street Journal in a recent profile about Neumann.

“The degree of self-dealing in the S-1 is so egregious, and it comes at a time when you’ve got regulators and politicians and folks across the country looking out at Silicon Valley and wondering if there’s the appropriate level of self-awareness,” Costolo observed, referring to WeWork’s filing for its ill-fated US trade debut.

Costolo was the CEO of Twitter from 2010 to 2015, leading the company through its initial public offering.

For his questionable decisions, Neumann received a tongue-lashing from the media and the tech community. But if we look at WeWork through a more compassionate lens, it actually contributed a lot of positives to the startup ecosystem.

1. It sparked the rise of co-working spaces.
Before co-working offices became popular and cool, founders often had to work out of campuses and/or coffee shops. WeWork has made it possible for small setups to be part of a bigger startup and creators community and possibly even find a home.

It also kick-started the development of many other co-working spaces across the world. WeWork got traditional landlords to reevaluate their model as they struggled to serve tenants better with their outdated clauses. The flexibility provided by such venues makes a lot more sense in today’s business world, forever changing the way we work and view office leases.