Back

Vishu Bheda

ย โ€ขย 

Medialย โ€ขย 6m

After spending just 12 minutes in their office... SoftBank's CEO wrote them a $4.4B check. Less than 30 minutes later, he invested another $2B. Here's the sales pitch WeWork's founder used to convince the world's smartest investors to ignore basic math : In 2017, WeWork was booming, but they were burning cash fast. Then came Masayoshi Son, SoftBank's legendary founder, who turned $20M into $100B with Alibaba. Known for gut-driven investments, Son decided to back WeWork after just 12 minutes of meeting its charismatic CEO, Adam Neumann. No pitch deck, no due diligenceโ€”just vibes. In a car ride, Son committed $4.4B, later adding another $2B. Why? He thought WeWork was a tech company, not a real estate one. But hereโ€™s the problem: WeWork's model was flawed. They leased offices on 15-year contracts but rented them out month-to-month. Fixed costs, variable revenueโ€”one downturn could destroy them. Despite this, by 2019, WeWork hit a $47B valuationโ€”worth more than Airbnb or SpaceX. But the hype masked reality: WeWork was just subletting offices, not revolutionizing workspaces. The turning point? Their IPO filing in 2019 revealed: $1.9B loss in 2018 Questionable deals benefiting Neumann A messy corporate structure Investors panicked. The IPO was canceled, valuation dropped to $8B, and SoftBank had to bail them out. Neumann was ousted. By 2023, WeWork filed for bankruptcy, drowning in $19B debt. The WeWork saga taught a hard lesson: flashy pitches donโ€™t replace solid business fundamentals. Today, investors demand clear profitability and sound economicsโ€”no more billion-dollar bets on vibes. And thatโ€™s probably for the best. Follow me for more such amazing business case studies!

10 Replies
6
22
Replies (10)

More like this

Recommendations from Medial

Image Description
Image Description

Havish Gupta

Figuring Outย โ€ขย 10m

Adam Neumann, have announced a new venture called WorkFlow which is basically WeWork's competition. Basic difference between Workflow and Wework is that WeWork signed long-term leases with landlords, then relied on short-term leases for revenue. On

See More
14 Replies
5
19
Image Description
Image Description

Rohan A

On My Wayย โ€ขย 5m

In 2018, the flight crew of the private plane Adam Neumann rented for a trip to Israel found a sizable chunk of drugs in cereal boxes. After this event, WeWork acquired a Gulfstream G650 for $60 million. I wonder why WeWork was still in losses ๐Ÿ˜

2 Replies
6
Image Description
Image Description

Havish Gupta

Figuring Outย โ€ขย 4m

In 2018, WeWork tried to raise $20 billion from SoftBank's Vision Fund. The deal was almost finalized, but major investors in the fund, including Saudi Arabia opposed it, causing the deal to collapse. Now, in 2025, OpenAI has raised a $40 billion rou

See More
5 Replies
18

Hari kiran

Insight guruย โ€ขย 1m

Reading books like 'Gambling Man' by Lionel Barber gives a great insight about what goes in the minds of a venture capitalist . It's not always that a VC money reaches the place it deserves. Many times it can just be a way of routing into some place

See More
Reply
2
Image Description
Image Description

Vishu Bheda

ย โ€ขย 

Medialย โ€ขย 8m

In 2018, he threw a $2 million party to show off his startupโ€™s success. Private jets. Celebrities. Live music. But just a year later, his over-the-top lifestyle cost his company $47 billion. Hereโ€™s how one CEOโ€™s bad decisions destroyed a billion-d

See More
27 Replies
23
42
Image Description
Image Description

Inactive

AprameyaAIย โ€ขย 1y

WeWork's Rise and Fall 2010: Adam Neumann co-founds WeWork Concept: Trendy coworking spaces 2014-2018: Rapid expansion โ€ข Raises billions in funding โ€ข Valuation hits $47 billion โ€ข Opens locations globally 2019: IPO attempt reveals issues โ€ข Massive

See More
4 Replies
2
29
Image Description
Image Description

Sanskar

Keen Learner and Exp...ย โ€ขย 1y

Masayoshi Son (CEO of soft bank) also known as the Bill Gates of japan or you can say "The Crazy Genius" - Why? Because he is behind almost everything you can think of. The one who has raised 45 billion in 45 minutes and the one who has raised 100 Bi

See More
5 Replies
3
10

Vansh Khandelwal

Full Stack Web Devel...ย โ€ขย 3m

WeWork, which aimed to revolutionize collaborative workspaces. However, its aggressive expansion led to a significant mismatch between supply and demand, resulting in financial strain. The companyโ€™s heavy investment in long-term leases became unsusta

See More
Reply
4
Image Description
Image Description

Vishu Bheda

ย โ€ขย 

Medialย โ€ขย 3m

๐—˜๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜†๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ฒ ๐—Ÿ๐—ฎ๐˜‚๐—ด๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐—”๐—ณ๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—›๐—ถ๐˜€ $๐Ÿฐ๐Ÿฌ๐—• ๐—™๐—ฎ๐—ถ๐—น๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐—ฒ โ€” ๐—ก๐—ผ๐˜„ ๐—›๐—ฒโ€™๐˜€ ๐—•๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐—ธ ๐—ช๐—ถ๐˜๐—ต ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—•๐—ถ๐—ด๐—ด๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜ ๐—ฉ๐—– ๐—•๐—ฒ๐˜ ๐—ผ๐—ณ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐——๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ In 2019, Adam Neumann became the face of one of techโ€™s most infamous disasters. W

See More
6 Replies
10
39

Download the medial app to read full posts, comements and news.