The real story behind ‘WeCrashed’, the series about WeWork

“I don’t want to be a billionaire, I want to be more than that,” says Adam Neumann (played by Jared Leto) to his future wife, Rebekah (played by Anne Hathaway). But he doesn’t just say it to her, but also to anyone willing to listen, something that doesn’t just happen in the series. WeCrashed of Apple TV+, but also happened in the true story of this eccentric entrepreneur and founder of the coworking WeWork.

Adam Neumann sells well or so he wants to believe. He is a young man, of Israeli origin, who lives in New York and attends the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College. As the series reflects WeCrashed and as it happened in the real story, there he will try to get investors for the multiple ideas that come to mind, since as he likes to define himself, he is a “serial entrepreneur”.

Whether it’s baby bodysuits with knee pads, shoes with foldable heels or community housing spaces, Neumann wants to sell it all, but as a sample WeCrashedis not very successful until he comes up with the definitive idea: co-working spaces, but that promote sociability among the people who use them.

WeCrashed shows the true story of the birth of WeWork, a different coworking space

It is 2010 and the financial crisis – which also affected the real estate sector – is hitting not only the United States, but the entire world. But Adam Neumann is not willing to give up, as he shows WeCrashed and as it also happened in the real story. Get $15 million to start building WeWork. “A space in which to meet people, in which, with a bit of luck, you can also fall in love,” he tells his first investor in the series.

The idea for WeWork is not unique to Neumann. On your way to becoming a billionaire there are two key people. On one side will be the woman he will marry and share eccentricities with, Rebekah Neumann, a vegan yoga instructor obsessed with feng shui. And on the other there will be the co-creator and co-founder of WeWork, Miguel McKelvey, an architect tired of his working conditions who decides to embark on this project with Neumann, as both the series shows WeCrashed like the true story itself.

After obtaining the financing, WeWork was born, a co-working space with free coffee available to everyone, bars that dispense beer, ping pong tables… But Neumann immediately wants more.

The more WeWork expands around the world, the more eccentric Neumann becomes as shown WeCrashed and how it happened in real history

WeWork begins to expand around the world and in 2014 reaches a milestone: the company is already worth 4.6 billion dollars. But Neumann is not satisfied with diaphanous buildings, full of light, space and comfort in one of the most expensive cities in the world, like New York, and looks for similar places but in other cities, and, later, in other countries, as he shows WeCrashed and it also happened in real history.

As Neumann says in the series: in 2019 they had 425 offices in 100 different cities around the world with more than 400,000 people using their services. But just as the company was going up, life for the Neumanns was going downhill.

José Antonio de la Rosa, professor of Human Resources at the CEU San Pablo University, explains that “the idea of ​​coworking at WeWork is not new in itself, but its approach was.” “Business centers in which there were several companies working in the same space already existed, but Neumann’s idea is an evolution of that idea since by sharing so many spaces, and even tables, it facilitates interaction between workers from different entities ”, assures De la Rosa.

the article of The Wall Street Journal September 2019 is the beginning of the fall

The turning point in Neumann’s true story, as reflected We Crashed, arrives in September 2019, when The Wall Street Journal publishes an article about how this billionaire led a life of excess and took advantage of the money from his company, which was losing more and more.

For De la Rosa, Neumann’s error came when he wanted your company had an IPO. “It was a mistake to look for it to be listed on the stock market, investors did not trust their day,” says the professor at the CEU San Pablo University.

After that moment, as shown WeCrashed And as happened in the true story, Neumann was removed by the WeWork board of directors from his position as CEO, leaving him relegated to the background within his own company. After that he got $500 million from SoftBank for selling his shares to the fund and leaving his position.