The Verge’s newsroom lights up every time a new WeWork story hits because it’s legitimately one of the wildest companies we’ve ever seen — and we’ve seen some wild ones. (We once went deep covering a company that made a $700 Wi-Fi-connected juicer, which now seems infinitely quaint by comparison.) For one of the best stories you’ll read all year, you must visit The Wall Street Journal today, where Eliot Brown published a captivating profile of Adam Neumann, the CEO and founder of The We Company.
I got a contact high just reading this bananas profile of WeWork’s founder
What is the founder of WeWork smoking? Weed — a lot of weed
What is the founder of WeWork smoking? Weed — a lot of weed
Photo by Jackal Pan / Visual China Group via Getty Images
is executive editor who has obsessed over headlines and internet speeds since 2011. He previously worked as an advocate for the National Park System.
The world has been learning a lot about Neumann’s extraordinary family antics since his failed attempt to IPO for $40 billion. As my colleague Liz Lopatto wrote last month, WeWork is less of a tech company and more of a soap opera. But thanks to today’s story from the Journal, we know a lot more about that soap opera’s plot. Here are just some of the incredible details from the WSJ:
- Neumann, after spending an international flight on a private jet toking, reportedly left a cereal box stuffed with so much weed on the plane that when crewmembers found it in Israel, they called the plane’s owner. The plane’s owner ordered the plane back, leaving Neumann stranded, because he was worried about becoming involved in international drug trafficking.
- According to several of the Journal’s sources, Neumann hopes to live forever. He also talks of becoming “president of the world.” (The story only talks about Neumann’s consumption of tequila and weed, despite these being cocaine thoughts.)
- Neumann once fired 7 percent of his staff. At the end of an all-hands meeting announcing the cuts, he had employees carry trays of tequila shots into the room. Then, Darryl McDaniels of Run-DMC walked out and played a set, and workers reportedly danced to “It’s Tricky.”
- Rebekah Neumann, Adam’s wife and colleague, once reportedly had multiple employees fired after meeting them for just a few minutes because “she didn’t like their energy.”
Again, you can read about all of this and more over at The Wall Street Journal. It’s worth the subscription.
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Jess Weatherbed and Richard Lawler
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