Profile of WeWork CEO Adam Neumann and his sometimes chaotic lifestyle, as sources detail worrying stories, like his wife firing multiple employees she just met
but thought that he needed to be crazier.” Dustin Volz / @dnvolz : The CEO of WeWork left a cereal box full of weed on a private jet last summer and ended up stranded in Israel when the jet's owner recalled the plane due to fears he was aiding trans-border drug transport https://www.wsj.com/... pic.twitter.com/gCnoqmHG52 Jeff Vandrew Jr / @vandrewattycpa : There wacky mismanaged companies becoming “unicorns” seems to be a symptom of late-stage fiat. https://twitter.com/... Sam Stryker / @sbstryker : I remember someone at BuzzFeed suggest they bring in therapy dogs as 20 percent of the company was being laid off for the people who didn't lose their jobs https://twitter.com/... Andrew Quackson / @andrewquackson : Tfw you wageslave for 10 yrs and raise a family, only to be fired because the CEO's hole says she cant vibe with libras https://twitter.com/... @wsj : Tequila, private jets, and Run-DMC: Adam Neumann built WeWork in his own unique way—and is struggling to translate that success into an IPO https://www.wsj.com/... Dustin Volz / @dnvolz : How to party at WeWork: 1) Somberly announce you are firing 7% of staff 2) Tequila shots! 3) Dance to a live performance of It's Tricky by RunDMC https://www.wsj.com/... https://twitter.com/... @dellsystem : i'm sure everybody already knows that wework is a gigantic con but you all need to read the WSJ article that just came out today. it's like someone took all the bad stereotypes about startups & smushed them together to form one stupidly overvalued unicorn https://www.wsj.com/... @alex : this is even more epic and comical than I anticipated https://www.wsj.com/... Aaron Klein / @aaronklein : I'm glad I stuck to fintech and didn't get into real estate...I've never really had the desire to smoke weed on my private jet while my wife wanders the halls and fires people for “bad energy.” 😂 https://twitter.com/... Eric Geller / @ericgeller : how is this real life how are we all here how is this what this is how how how https://twitter.com/... Jack Nicas / @jacknicas : This is brilliant reporting by @eliotwb. My favorite anecdote: Adam Neumann banned meat at his company, surprising WeWork staff. Later he clarified employees couldn't expense meals with meat, but could eat meat at the office that they bought. He later was seen eating meat. https://twitter.com/... Chelsea Fagan / @chelsea_fagan : there is so much hilarious mess going on right now in the tech/media/startup worlds that i actually can't keep up anymore. can everyone calm down i have actual work to do https://twitter.com/... Matt Ford / @fordm : There's a lot to digest in this profile of WeWork's CEO but I can't get past the arbitrary cruelty of this part. https://www.wsj.com/... https://twitter.com/... Rat King / @mikeisaac : this first graf about neumann is literally what uber said about kalanick/itself two years ago history is cyclical and the cult of the founder is real https://www.nytimes.com/... pic.twitter.com/yFppXgNHtl Craig Silverman / @craigsilverman : Feels like a generation of leaders mistook “Silicon Valley” and “The Office” as management how-tos and now we have this. https://twitter.com/... @alex : don't let any single person have voting control of shit https://www.wsj.com/... Osita Nwanevu / @ositanwanevu : It gets clearer by the day that the startup world is run by people who would otherwise be serial killers or cult leaders. https://www.wsj.com/... https://twitter.com/... Tom Gara / @tomgara : The WeWork CEO's wife “has ordered multiple employees fired after meeting them for just minutes, telling staff she didn't like their energy” https://www.wsj.com/... Tom Gara / @tomgara : WeWork is the Trump-buying-Greenland of tech unicorns: there's a bunch of probably serious issues there, but primarily it's just extremely funny, like genuine comedy that's fun for the whole family. Tom Gara / @tomgara : What is even the point of being rich if you can't smoke weed on your jet https://twitter.com/... David Roth / @david_j_roth : The WeWork dude is a clown cobbled together out of every ridiculous rich person trend and tic of this moment, but he's enabled by even richer people who are dumb or lazy enough to confuse that for brilliance. https://www.wsj.com/... Francis X. Rocca / @francisxrocca : Among his early ventures: “a collapsible heel on women's shoes that didn't get off the ground” and “baby clothes with knee pads” that “never gained traction.” https://www.wsj.com/... Annie Karni / @anniekarni : “He told at least one person directly that his ambitions included becoming Israel's prime minister. More recently, he said that if he ran for anything, it would be president of the world.” Via @eliotwb https://www.wsj.com/... Anupreeta Das / @preetatweets : Tequila, private jets, and Run-DMC: Adam Neumann built WeWork in his own unique way, and is struggling to translate that success into an IPO. https://www.wsj.com/... Maya Zehavi / @mayazi : At the end of the day, a lot of the Wework mess is a result of earlier investors' lax governance, it was an ever expanding company with valuations only going 🆙 and no one asked for accountability https://www.wsj.com/... Tripp Mickle / @trippmickle : “Adam Neumann was flying high. Literally. WeWork was months away from being valued at $47 billion. Revenue was doubling. And Mr. Neumann was zipping across the Atlantic Ocean in a private jet with friends, smoking marijuana.” @eliotwb profiles We's CEO https://www.wsj.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
A month after a close reading of The We Company's S-1 catalogued the gap between its 'elevate the world's consciousness' mission and its actual economics, this WSJ profile supplies the human layer behind that filing: sources describe Rebekah Neumann ordering multiple employees fired minutes after meeting them, and Adam Neumann stranded in Israel after leaving a cereal box of marijuana on a borrowed private jet. It lands while the company is struggling to convert growth into a successful IPO.
The valuation arc makes the stakes clear: October 2014 fundraising documents showed WeWork raising $400M at a $10 billion valuation by June 2015 [[a:834325]], with early investors exercising lax governance that fueled rapid expansion — the very structure now under scrutiny as public-market buyers weigh the file.
First-order effects
- IPO investors now have documented governance failures to price alongside the financials: spousal firing authority, a CEO who imposed a meat-expense ban then broke it himself, and stated ambitions ranging from Israeli prime minister to 'president of the world'.
- WeWork employees absorb the fallout directly — roughly 7% of staff are being laid off as part of the cost cuts and restructuring accompanying the offering.
Second-order effects
- Late-stage backers face a mark-repricing problem: the lax governance that accelerated WeWork's rise mirrors the moment when prominent investors refused to fund HQ Trivia after finding troubling founder conduct [[a:925028]], signaling that private-market diligence now extends to CEO behavior.
- Other founder-centric consumer brands come under the same lens — Airbnb's Brian Chesky was already being questioned about whether he could shift from new pursuits to preserving cash — as public-market buyers treat founder discipline as a diligence item, not a personality quirk.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, founder-controlled governance structures stop commanding a charisma premium and start pricing like a liability, pushing boards to constrain or replace founders before a filing rather than after a blowup — a shift Iterable's board made preemptively by ousting Justin Zhu for taking LSD before a meeting [[a:965932]].
The trend: Founder conduct and governance are becoming the decisive variable in startup exits, with boards and public-market investors increasingly pricing the person alongside the business model.