Billion Dollar Loser

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 it was also a technology company.

Veteran journalist Reeves Weideman dives deep into WeWork and Adams's astronomical rise—from the marijuana and tequila filled board rooms to cult like company summer camps and consciousness-raising with Anthony Kiedis—for 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.