Story
Adam Neumann was 'a megaphone of my best self,' says a WeWork insider
Sam shares research from people who worked with WeWork's Adam Neumann. One woman described talking to him as looking into a mirror that was a megaphone of her best self, making her believe she was the best and could do anything.
“Adam, Adam was unique on a one-to-one convo. It was like looking into it when I talked to him. It was like looking into a mirror and seeing myself, but that mirror was a megaphone of my best self. He made me believe that I was the best and I could do anything.”
Take
The 99/1 irrational-to-rational founder and why certainty is intoxicating
Shaan argues every founder needs irrationality (a perfectly rational person never has a vision), and Neumann was 99% irrational. That bone-deep certainty splits people into haters who lack self-belief and followers who join to be near it.
“He was like sort of 90/10, 90% irrational, maybe not even 10% rational. Maybe it was just 99/1 irrational to rational where from day one he was saying what this was going to be, how amazing it was going to be, how this investor was going to give us all every dollar that they had, how this customer was going to have the greatest experience of their life. And he believed it with every bone in his body.”
Number
Membership perk cards: FoundersCard ~$10M, Select ~$2M, near 100% profit
Sam estimates FoundersCard does about $10 million in revenue and the Select card about $2 million, both essentially 100% profit since the membership-perk model has almost no costs. He's surprised they're not bigger; the WeWork founder told him members barely used such perks.
$10M
Estimated annual revenue of FoundersCard · USD/year
“I think if I guess that FoundersCard is $10 million in revenue, Select is $2 million in sales. But other than people, 100% profit because you don't have any costs. Right. And I talked to the founder of WeWork about this when he spoke at HustleCon, and he told me that they had that as well for their members and no one used the perks.”