WeWork is not your average real estate company. They are growing all over the world!
Over the years, WeWork has earned somewhat cultish reputation
by Mary Hanbury for Business Insider
photo: Getty Images
Over the years, WeWork has earned somewhat cultish reputation thanks to it founders’ emphasis on its community, or the so-called “We Generation,” which it keeps loyal with its annual three-day summer camp festivals and offices stocked with beer kegs, among other things.
This mentality shone through in a Bloomberg Businessweek interview on Wednesday with WeWork CEO Adam Neumann. He co-founded the firm with Miguel McKelvey and his wife Rebekah Paltrow Neumann (a cousin of Gwyneth Paltrow), and is known for his hyper-energetic and idiosyncratic leadership style.
Bloomberg observes that Neumann is served a bowl of super oats with what he calls “amazing qualities” midway through the interview, his co-founders go around wearing shirts with slogans like “High on We,” and WeWork’s walls are adorned with signs telling tenants to “Hustle Harder.”
Bloomberg prodded Neumann around recent events related to funding; WeWork did not receive the full $16 billion investment it was expecting from investor Softbank earlier this year, bagging just $1.9 billion instead.
Despite this, Neumann said their relationship was still, “very, very, very, very positive.” In fact, Neumann views this as an enlightening moment. “Let’s not build a company just for the sake of revenue,” he told Bloomberg. “Part of creating value is not maximizing.”
