It is almost like a fable rather than a corporate chronicle that is the saga of Adam Neumann and the ascent and descent of WeWork.
A story of enormous vanity, lofty aspirations, and a gullible public.
Adam Neumann was the tall, charismatic leader who, with a penchant for doing tequila shots and smoking weed, organized parties that featured rap stars; he aimed to become a trillionaire and even colonize Mars with his corporation.
It appears to be far removed from the true state of affairs, as the company which grew to become the most prominent lessee of office space in New York and London has filed for insolvency protection from the same property owners who once favored them.
It all began with an established, reliable concept that had been adjusted to suit the present era.
Since the late 1980s, IWG (formerly Regus) has provided a space to work for those who desired something more than a coffee bar but less than an office.
When WeWork was established in 2010, the circumstances were right.
As the financial crisis took its toll, commercial spaces began to empty, with even the biggest businesses unable to survive. This left landlords in a desperate situation.
An army of unemployed individuals attempted to reconstruct their professions, and due to mobile technology, were able to work from any location.
Interest rates at their lowest point allowed you to acquire money for expansion at a cost-effective rate.
Investors filled with FOMO were prepared to pay top dollar lest they miss out on the next big success stories like Amazon, Google, and Facebook.
Introduce an intriguing element - offer up free beer and have music playing for a younger demographic meriting novel and intermingled boundaries between work and leisure - you made up the recipe for a business that, to its devotees, felt more like a cause than a venture.
Neumann lies at the core of it all -- since he came to New York in 2001, hailing from a kibbutz in Israel. He received a business education, and during the experience came up with some imaginative concepts, such as a woman's shoe featuring a foldable heel and an organization making baby pants with knee pads.
In 2008, in an effort to save costs, he rented out half of his office space to another individual. Together with a friend, they then managed to convince the landlord to let them subdivide some floors of an unoccupied building and rent them out. Greendesk was born from this venture, providing free, fairtrade coffee and promoting collective living, as is the Israeli kibbutz tradition.
Neumann saw that a multitude of trendy independent professionals had gathered, and he knew he was on to a good thing.
Adopting the same approach as Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, the firm manages to expand at an impressive rate facilitated by an accommodating real estate investor who provides a capital injection of $15 million (approx. £12 million) for a 33% share. This prompt rebranding to WeWork marks the launch of the venture.
Investors have been flooding in, including Softbank - one of the most prominent tech investors worldwide - and have pushed the worth of the company to a total of $47bn (£38bn) over the coming seven years.
Neumann amazed audiences and investors with his outlook. As he extended operations into over 20 nations, he purchased a gulfstream jet and hired P Diddy for the corporate event. Unfortunately, the corporation was suffering a loss of £200,000 every hour.
Many point to the pandemic and the recent spike in interest rates as the major factors in the downfall of WeWork, but the deterioration already had begun before either of these events took place.
Puzzled queries arose concerning why a firm leasing out work areas was seen as an innovator firm and appraised accordingly.
In 2017 the Wall Street Journal reported that the company was "driven by Silicon Valley magical thinking".
It was apparent that WeWork was engaging in an activity that has been demonstrated to be hazardous repeatedly.
Acquiring long-term office space leases for a significant period in desirable locations with the goal of securing numerous short-term tenants that will cover costs and generate a gain.
It is seemingly only when Neumann opts to offer share ownership to the public through a 2019 IPO, that much is revealed. The paperwork submitted to relevant government offices exposed a larger deficit than had been assumed, as well as a peculiar affiliation between Neumann's individual assets and the organization's monetary resources.
The IPO proved unsuccessful; WeWork's worth dropped by $40 billion in a few short months, with Neumann subsequently departing from his position as CEO. Within a half year of these events, the global pandemic hit, significantly altering the environment of collaborative workspaces.
Neumann managed to segregate his personal wealth from that of the firm he founded. WeWork is currently valued at approximately $50m - this is one thousandth of its most significant worth. Neumann left with more than one billion dollars - 20 times the worth of the company as of now.
The pied piper who captivated the investment decisions of some of the most well-known and highly regarded investors has now moved on. Holding investments in numerous organisations, he has recently obtained a $350 million investment from the eminent venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.
He went back to the parable - he ventured too near to the sun. However, it wasn't the wax that caused his downfall.
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