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A review by asterope
The Cult of We: WeWork, Adam Neumann, and the Great Startup Delusion by Eliot Brown, Maureen Farrell
informative
reflective
5.0
This was an excellent read. I don't actually have much to say about these nonfiction books that really hit the nail on the head. They're just great, y'know? I have nothing critical to say.
It's very comprehensive. Not just about the startup hype aspect, but also Neumann's cult of personality. There are some really choice quotes from him that are just..."You're not scaling up your enthusiasm as high as it can be." Yeah. It's truly wild how he managed to convince thousands of people to join his madness.
The rise of WeWork sounds nuts from the outset. But the book goes into a lot of detail about venture capitalism, mutual funds, how startups raise funds and get valued. I knew the basics already, but I was pleasantly surprised at how detailed this got. It really illustrated how investors bought into Neumann's expansive vision and the company's unprecedented valuation. "WeWork was a by-product of the same mass delusion that raised the valuations of "tech" companies higher and higher. Investors saw a physical social network with amazing growth rather than a collection of people paying market rents for office space that had losses growing just as fast as revenue."
Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes are of course mentioned multiple times as a similar case of the 'Silicon Valley hype machine', so I couldn't help but compare this book to Bad Blood by John Carreyrou. Whilst it's also very good, I found The Cult of We gave a fuller picture of its CEO and their inner circle. But I do need to reread Bad Blood soon as well.
Something else that struck me was the epilogue. It was a proper ending that recaps what happened to the main players and how the fall of WeWork affected the investment landscape. I've read some nonfiction that ends too abruptly, but this was perfect. And there's even mention of new 'tech' companies that are trying to pull the same bullshit all over again! Maybe I'll read a book about one of those someday too.
It's very comprehensive. Not just about the startup hype aspect, but also Neumann's cult of personality. There are some really choice quotes from him that are just..."You're not scaling up your enthusiasm as high as it can be." Yeah. It's truly wild how he managed to convince thousands of people to join his madness.
The rise of WeWork sounds nuts from the outset. But the book goes into a lot of detail about venture capitalism, mutual funds, how startups raise funds and get valued. I knew the basics already, but I was pleasantly surprised at how detailed this got. It really illustrated how investors bought into Neumann's expansive vision and the company's unprecedented valuation. "WeWork was a by-product of the same mass delusion that raised the valuations of "tech" companies higher and higher. Investors saw a physical social network with amazing growth rather than a collection of people paying market rents for office space that had losses growing just as fast as revenue."
Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes are of course mentioned multiple times as a similar case of the 'Silicon Valley hype machine', so I couldn't help but compare this book to Bad Blood by John Carreyrou. Whilst it's also very good, I found The Cult of We gave a fuller picture of its CEO and their inner circle. But I do need to reread Bad Blood soon as well.
Something else that struck me was the epilogue. It was a proper ending that recaps what happened to the main players and how the fall of WeWork affected the investment landscape. I've read some nonfiction that ends too abruptly, but this was perfect. And there's even mention of new 'tech' companies that are trying to pull the same bullshit all over again! Maybe I'll read a book about one of those someday too.