WeCrashed

Hola, amigos. Happy Cinco de Mayo.

What do you call a cargo ship full of mayonnaise that goes down in the ocean?

Sink-o-da-mayo.

Oh, my God. Oh, my God.

Such a bad joke.

Anyways, today we're covering IPOs, initial public offerings.

An IPO is the process by which a private company becomes a public one.

For a founder, ultimate success sounds like a ringing bell,

specifically the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange.

Uh-oh.

Going public has many pros.

But it's also got a big old con.

The risk that the IPO could fail.

IPO is the make-or-break moment.

It separates the winners from the losers.

The Googles from the Groupons.

The Amazons from the Pet.coms.

Going public means that you are literally going public.

Joe Ordinary gets to see your dirty laundry,

skid marks and all.

How've you been running your company?

How much have you actually been making? Or losing?

Which is why some founders try to keep the enemy outside the gate

for as long as possible.

You shall not pass!

My assistant was supposed to put it together,

but he twisted his ankle this morning, or broke it.

I don't know. I'm not a doctor.

He tripped over the suitcases.

My other assistant took him to the ER.

Which is okay, because we adjust.

We adapt. We improvise! Right?

I don't know if anyone told you, but it's my superpower.

Change.

Why are you coming to us?

Because you have all the money, huh?

WeWork is a…

It's a family business.

And we're at our strongest

when we find the right partners to join the family. You understand?

I still don't see how you're a tech company.

The point of the model is to demonstrate

how tech drives workplace insights.

Yeah, which conference rooms are being booked.

If space is being used efficiently.

Efficiency is…

That's Google.

Why are you coming to us?

Why not SoftBank?

SoftBank remains wildly committed.

Adam, sorry. Why not just IPO?

How sweet was that?

Well, the kids were great,

but everything else was embarrassing.

Teachers' shoes should be white, black, or beige,

and for God's sakes no laces.

Ms. Myers is a stress-dream on that tambourine.

How do you not know how to play a tambourine? It's a tambourine.

And don't even get me started on the pitch of Mr. Ivey's voice.

Feel free to start writing this down whenever it suits you, Bea.

That you don't like the pitch of Mr. Ivey's voice?

Yes.

God, you'd think that in New York you could find a teacher

that could both sing and teach.

I'm ready to move on to action items.

-Are you? -Ready.

I rechecked the website this morning.

Tell Gavin I'm still finding placeholder text

and Helvetica.

Not acceptable.

I called the front desk line at 11:23.

No one answered. Five rings, straight to voice mail.

Tell Lisa that's not acceptable.

Set a meeting with Nicole re: expansion plans

for WeGrow San Fran and Tel Aviv,

the pace of scholarship funding, which is just…

…and the lemonade stand.

So…

The lemonade stand.

We're gonna take kids to our farm

and then have them pick vegetables,

sell them to WeWork employees.

It's gonna be the lemonade stand for the 21st century.

Conscious entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurship for five-year-olds?

I just heard it too.

You're right.

We'll include the younger kids. But you have to order the car seats.

Where are the admission certificates for next year's class?

I have them, but there's a typo.

It says, "Class of 2031."

No, that's right.

That's when they're gonna graduate from WeGrow High School.

Of course.

I'll sign them.

I'm not just going to abandon kids to normative education experiences, Bea.

I wanna educate them from birth to death.

What about that for a slogan?

"From birth to death."

-Yeah. -Can you mock that up on a banner?

So that way I could see it.

Great. That's it.

Okay.

Adam.

You've been in the Valley for a week. Nobody's coming in.

It's time. You have to IPO.

Motek. I tried to make it back in time for us to have breakfast together,

but you're up so early.

How about I make a tofu scramble

and some green juice to start your day?

If you'll excuse me. I have to go run the school that you gave me.

-I didn't mean it to come out that way-- -I know you don't think I do anything.

But I actually do.

-Motek. Please. -No, no. You made it perfectly clear.

-Motek-- -My therapist said,

"You can only hate someone you truly love."

Guess I truly love you.

And how are you gonna get this back on track?

Adam?

Who said we're off track?

We're on exactly the right track, Jamie.

The track the universe wants us to be on.

-So, no luck in the Valley? -They lack vision.

By the way, I'm going to need to increase our personal line of credit.

Not by much. Just a bit to give us a little breathing room.

What are you up to, total?

380 million.

Nothing for you to do. I'll speak to the lending team myself.

And what's WeWork's burn rate these days?

Fifty-eight million a week.

That's a lot of money.

Not compared to what we'll make.

Well…

We've issued you, personally, what?

Ninety-seven million in low-interest mortgages?

Bought a stake in the company.

A stake that is now worth over 600 million.

Why not go public?

Why not IPO?

I don't want to answer to anyone.

Well, billions of dollars tend to make that go down easier.

All these different shapes.

This leaf here, what is this one?

Bloom Energy. Traded up more than 66% on the first day of trading.

Wow, 66% on the first day?

And this?

Dropbox. Up more than 35%, first day.

Impressive.

And what would mine be?

A unicorn.

A unicorn.

Okay. The next item up is…

Enrollment.

The numbers are dispiriting.

They're just not where I need them to be.

So, how do we boost enrollment?

We could revamp our social strategy.

What social strategy?

There's nothing to revamp, Damian.

We have 600 followers, okay? No.

We need to think bigger. We need to reach a wider audience.

You were invited on that podcast.

Interesting.

Yeah, if you think that going from Vanity Fair to a podcast

is the right trajectory

for the chief branding officer of a multi-billion-dollar company, great.

I was actually thinking CNBC.

Right? Adam is on every other week.

They love WeWork.

This is WeWork's newest, boldest initiative,

reimagining the education system.

And they're getting an exclusive with the CEO.

Adam's schedule is kind of packed.

No. No, Damian. No. Me.

I am the CEO of WeGrow.

Okay. So, let them know that I'm gonna tease our expansion plans,

I'm gonna talk about our global network of schools, the innovation in our--

Welcome to the School of Greatness podcast.

I've got Rebekah Neumann in the house,

wife of WeWork founder Adam Neumann.

Actually, I'm…

thrilled to be here. Thank you.

The mission of WeGrow

and, to be honest, the collective "we" that we're all living under,

is to elevate the world's consciousness.

And it's a school, right?

It's really more of a practice

and a new approach to life.

How were you inspired to do this?

Gosh.

It was really just a lot of things coming together.

He ended up running off with my best friend.

No.

Something I wish people knew about me?

I'm really…

flexible?

-Emotionally? -Physically.

A yogi in India once told me

if you keep your spine nimble then you won't age.

Is that why you look 21?