Why the WeWork fiasco makes for compelling TV

SURFING BETWEEN team-building workout routines. Tequila photographs in conferences and pot on non-public jets. Barefoot strolls round New York. Adam Neumann’s quirks have been acquainted to readers of newspapers’ enterprise pages since 2019, when WeWork, the workspace supplier with tech aspirations that he co-founded, reached a non-public valuation of $47bn, solely to crumble after an abortive preliminary public providing (IPO). The story of WeWork and its flamboyant boss have now reached a wider viewers because of “WeCrashed”, a brand new collection which can stream on Apple TV+ from March 18th.

In style tradition, whose creators lean left, revels in skewering the perceived greed of capitalism, additionally by way of the prism of real-life enterprise figures. The villains change with the instances. Within the Nineties it was the buy-out barons (“Barbarians on the Gate”). After the monetary disaster of 2007-09 it was the funding bankers (notably on stage with “The Lehman Trilogy”) and different financiers (on the silver display screen with “The Massive Quick”). As massive tech grew too massive for some tastes, the highlight turned to its misanthropic billionaire bosses (“Steve Jobs”, “The Social Community”).

The newest cohort of capitalist anti heroes and -heroines to obtain popcultural therapy consists of the darlings of Silicon Valley’s startup scene. “The Dropout”, a collection streaming on Hulu and Disney+, recounts the rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes and her fraudulent blood-testing agency. Showtime’s “Tremendous Pumped” dissects the lifetime of Travis Kalanick, Uber’s good however abrasive co-founder. “WeCrashed” belongs to this style.

Mr Neumann and his new-agey spouse, Rebekah (“worry is a selection”), are made for TV. Most chief executives have massive egos however few can match the sheer scale of the couple’s narcissism (or attractiveness). Mr Neumann, who grew up in an Israeli kibbutz, as soon as claimed that the elusive Center East peace treaty could be signed at a WeWork venue. His firm’s IPO prospectus promised not merely to supply handy co-working house however, apparently with out irony, to “elevate the world’s consciousness”. Portrayed masterfully by Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway, the on-screen Neumanns are, like many startup founders solely extra so, each intoxicating and painful to look at. It’s all of the sudden straightforward to know why so many buyers felt without delay besotted and uncomfortable round them.

Mr Neumann’s knack for distorting actuality—most notably by dressing up a lossmaking office-rental agency as a profitable tech large—is a trait widespread to many profitable founders. It’s not the entire story, nevertheless. “WeCrashed” additionally depicts how the truth of Silicon Valley distorted him and his agency. In a single scene Son Masayoshi, the messianic boss of SoftBank, a free-spending Japanese tech-investment group that poured billions into WeWork, tells Mr Neumann, “You’re not loopy sufficient.” A string of different distinguished enterprise capitalists likewise inspired the corporate to intention for the celebs. So it did.

Vibrant characters apart, WeWork’s rise and fall makes for compelling TV as a result of it follows the dramatic arc of a Greek tragedy: a protagonist grossly overestimates his skills; his hubris is punished; order is restored. Besides on this case, the punishment is meted out not by mercurial gods however by Mr Neumann’s more and more impatient VC backers and the general public markets, whose scrutiny of his agency’s value-torching enterprise mannequin undid the IPO. As such, “WeCrashed” additionally traces the arc of capitalism’s capability for self-correction. ■

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This text appeared within the Enterprise part of the print version beneath the headline “WeBinged”