In 2010, self-described “serial entrepreneur” Adam Neumann and architect Miguel McKelvey founded the shared-workspace company WeWork. It seemed they’d found a profitable way to take advantage of two significant trends: the surplus of relatively low-cost office space left vacant following the 2008 financial crisis, and a rise in the number of workers turning to freelancing or creating their own start-ups. The company grew quickly from its first location in New York’s SoHo district, and within a few short years it was being described using the much sought-after name given by investors to any start-up valued at over $1bn. WeWork was a unicorn.
That was only the beginning. As WeWork grew so did the scale and grandiosity of Neumann’s ambitions. They rapidly opened hundreds of new locations across North America, Europe and Israel, as well as expanding into luxury gyms (Rise by We), private schools (WeGrow) and co-living accommodation (WeLive). Neumann pitched his company to excitable investors as more than just a real estate company. WeWork, he claimed, was actually more like a tech start-up, and he was offering the chance to invest in a “physical social network”. By January 2019 the company had achieved a valuation of $47bn, making it the third-highest valued privately-owned company in the world, placed just behind Uber and Airbnb.
