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For a time, charismatic entrepreneur Adam Neumann, co-founder of the office space-sharing company WeWork, dazzled investors. They poured a fortune into his startup, as witnessed in the documentary WeWork: or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn.<\/p>\n
Jed Rothstein directed the film that premieres in the Documentary Spotlight section of the SXSW Film Festival. He says Neumann\u2019s underlying business concept possessed some merit.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey took an idea\u2014real estate arbitrage or co-working spaces\u2014and they made it fun,\u201d Rothstein observed during an appearance in the Deadline SXSW Virtual Studio. \u201cA lot of companies that had done this before had these kind of ugly corporate spaces that were carved up. They were very depressing\u2026And [WeWork] completely flipped that on its head and said, \u2018Let\u2019s bring light into these spaces. Let\u2019s make a nice communal area in the center and let\u2019s encourage the different businesses to interact with one another and collaborate.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Neumann, an Israeli immigrant, proved to be an irresistible salesman, touting his company as a Silicon Valley-esque innovator, which was intoxicating to venture capitalists.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time a business journalist said, \u2018Isn\u2019t this just a desk rental company?\u2019 Adam would correct them and say, \u2018No, no, no, we\u2019re a technology company,\u2019\u201d Rothstein explained. \u201cBecause a technology company, to an investor, means high-growth multiple, a growth multiple that you will never achieve in real estate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Neumann\u2019s style of leadership has been described as messianic, and the mythologizing of the company and its values struck some observers as extreme.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t a cult but it had a cult-y air,\u201d the director commented. \u201cThey were selling it as more than just itself. It wasn\u2019t just a place [where] you worked, it was a worldview, it was a way of living, it was a new system for thinking about everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the end, as the documentary\u2019s title suggests, the enterprise virtually collapsed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s a cautionary tale. It\u2019s a cautionary tale for investors\u2026You could always say beware of irrational exuberance, which is sort of the story of capitalism since the tulip bubble of Holland in\u2026the 1600s,\u201d Rothstein observed. \u201cIn terms of building a business or being the leader of a business, to me the cautionary note would be make sure you surround yourself with people who, frequently enough, tell you \u2018no.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
WeWork: or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn premieres on streaming platform Hulu on April 2. The film is directed and executive produced by Rothstein and produced by Campfire\u2019s Ross Dinerstein. Executive producers include Rebecca Evans and Ross Girard from Campfire, Tim Lee, Michael Cho and Mimi Rode from Olive Hill, Travis Collins, Kyle Kramer and Randall Lane from Forbes and Danni Mynard.<\/p>\n
Watch the conversation in the video above.<\/p>\n
The Deadline Studio is sponsored by Acast.<\/p>\n
View this article at Deadline<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u2018WeWork\u2019 Documentary Recounts Massive Growth, Disastrous Crash Of Dynamic Office Rental Startup \u2014 SXSW Studio For a time, charismatic entrepreneur Adam Neumann, co-founder of the office space-sharing company WeWork, dazzled investors. They poured a fortune into his startup, as witnessed in the documentary WeWork: or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn. Jed
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