Adam Neumann does not count out.
The infamous former CEO of WeWork may have lost his empire, but an insider told The Post that Neumann, 41, is already planning his enigmatic next step.
“This is about what happened in the world due to the pandemic,” the informant said. “He has big plans and he’s waiting for the right time to announce them.”
Neumann has reportedly not seen the brand new Hulu documentary “WeWork: Or the Making and Breaking of a $ 47 Billion Unicorn” that begins his spectacular rise and fall as CEO of the once hot office space.
The entrepreneur is portrayed in the documentary as a charismatic but deceived charlatan who convinced financial motives – from Jamie Dimon, Chase Bank, to Masayoshi Son, CEO of SoftBank – to guide him and give billions to WeWork before launching in August 2019 went very wrong.
Close friends and family members ‘described’ the film to him, but the wounded child-turned punchline does not watch or read things about himself, an insider told The Post.
Instead, he was locked up in his home in Greenwich Village with his wife, Rebekah, and five children, engaged in the ‘brand new’ business.
Neumann has not spoken publicly since leaving the company in September 2019, six weeks after submitting common office space documents for an IPO, with a notable valuation of $ 47 billion. But the valuation fell by half the following month and the IPO failed amid revelations that the company was losing money and that its growth projections were very optimistic. Add to that: reports of Neumann’s excessive rock ‘n’ roll, including wild spending and marijuana use aboard a private jet, and financial irregularities.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Neumann was paid $ 1.7 billion in exchange for severing most of his ties with WeWork.
He has also been ridiculed for making statements about wanting to live forever, referring to WeWork – essentially a sublease of office space – as something that will ‘raise the world’s consciousness.
After losing the business, the family and their nannies went up to Israel to be low for several months. According to the source, Neumanns sold at least three of the reported six properties in their $ 90 million portfolio, including one of their homes in the Hamptons, one in Westchester and a luxury Gramercy Park. compound.
But three people who know Neumann, who grew up in a kibbutz in Israel for a time, told The Post that he does not lick his wounds or hide his head in shame – despite being on the billionaire list in 2020 of Forbes fell after plunging its net worth. from a peak of $ 14 billion to $ 750 million.
“He does feel that he made mistakes, but he also feels that the media made a sensation out of certain elements of the story,” one source familiar with the situation told The Post.
The $ 47 billion valuation was probably a mistake. But WeWork is still a good company and he built it … It has hundreds of locations. I do not know too many people who can build such a business within ten years. ”
He also received support from unlikely people.
“I feel weird defending a (sometimes very sharp-elbow) contestant, but I’m worried about these WeWork documents and films,” Jamie Hodari, CEO and co-founder of Industrious, a rival of WeWork, recently said. written on LinkedIn.
Hodari told The Post that he believes Neumann’s problematic reputation as a whole has unfairly tarnished.
“You can not ignore the fact that Adam built a $ 9 billion business, but not the way Adam teamed up professionally,” “Very few people have done it and in such a short time.”
Mick McConnell, a former senior vice president at WeWork who is no longer associated with Neumann, told The Post that he believes Neumann has been demonized too much.
“Adam has put together a team of people who have never been seen before,” McConnell said. He is writing a book about WeWork. ‘We have produced space – something that has never been done before – and the way architecture and development will be done from this stage is changing. Collaboration will become even more relevant as people start working even more at the office. ”
Neumann introduced WeWork in 2010 with co-founder Miguel McKelvey, barely mentioned in the documentary, and his wife Rebekah, a cousin of Gwyneth Paltrow.
Rebekah, 42, a former aspiring actress and yoga instructor, is portrayed as a toxic New Age Lady Macbeth in the documentary and recent biography of her husband, ‘Billion Dollar Loser’, by Reeves Wiedeman.
According to Wiedeman, Rebekah’s fingerprints were the most important element of the company’s near-explosion in August 2019 when WeWork submitted its S-1 form ahead of a planned IPO.
The Neumanns appear unconcerned that the document, titled “Wingspan”, reveals the $ 1.6 billion loss of We Work – which shocks investors. Instead, Rebekah Neumann, titled Chief Brand and Impact Officer, hired a Vanity Fair photographer to take celebrities and influencers such as Anna Faris, Aimee Song, Ron Howard and Arianna Huffington to WeWork spaces and present it at the submission. included.
An insider who knows the couple said some people expected Neumann to dump Rebekah after he dissatisfied the company.
“No way,” the source said. ‘Adam and Rebekah are devoted to each other and devoted to the children. There can be no greater contrast to how Adam is portrayed in public and what a family man he is. ‘
Rebekah, who started a ‘conscious entrepreneurship school’ for children in WeWork called ‘WeGrow’, is hoping to start a new venture called ‘Students for Life’ or SOLFL (pronounced ‘soulful’), now that WeWork sold, started. the WeGrow rights back to her.
Meanwhile, Neumann, an associate said, has not undergone therapy or any form of rehabilitation, has invested in a number of start-up businesses, including a technology mortgage lending service, a Alfred concierge residential service and some Israeli companies.
He also hid in November to facilitate an agreement between the head of a special-purpose acquisition company and SoftBank, the now majority owner of WeWork, which set the stage for his former company’s $ 9 billion issue.
SoftBank originally saved WeWork after its first disastrous attempt to go public.
‘[Adam’s] still a positive, happy guy, ‘an employee told The Post. “He feels humble, yes, but he’s here to stay.”