The Cult of We Quotes

“Matt Levine, a Bloomberg columnist who writes a detailed and witty daily email dissected by Wall Street bankers, had been on vacation when the prospectus went live. The following Monday morning, he wrote in his email that the “We” trademark news was “the news item that caused me to absolutely lose my mind—the item that, if I were a slightly more dedicated financial columnist, would have had me on the next helicopter back to the office.”
― Eliot Brown, The Cult of We: WeWork, Adam Neumann, and the Great Startup Delusion

“Scooter companies were just offering scooters, not disrupting walking.”
― Eliot Brown, The Cult of We: WeWork, Adam Neumann, and the Great Startup Delusion

“For much of WeWork’s existence, the business had functioned shockingly well despite a management structure characterized by chaos.”
― Eliot Brown, The Cult of We: WeWork, Adam Neumann, and the Great Startup Delusion

“People, it seemed, could not resist continuing to dream big. Society is easily wooed by a charismatic leader with a big vision. It’s hard to resist an optimist who promises a lucrative future—a messiah for profits lying just over the next horizon.”
― Eliot Brown, The Cult of We: WeWork, Adam Neumann, and the Great Startup Delusion

“Had a frothy venture capital sector not been so obsessed with the search for eccentric and visionary founders, WeWork might still occupy only a smattering of buildings in Brooklyn and lower Manhattan. If mutual funds hadn’t rushed into startups, WeWork might have never had the funds to start expanding to surf pools. If Saudi Arabia’s economy hadn’t fallen under the control of a new startup-loving prince desperate to diversify its oil wealth, Masayoshi Son might never have written Neumann a check. If bankers hadn’t been so focused on the prestige and fees from leading a big IPO, perhaps sober advice could have prevailed before a major public embarrassment. When all the forces worked together, people thought as a herd. Optimism supplanted critical thinking. Smart minds were bent so that a real estate company looked like a software company. It was the same effect that allowed mattress companies to look like tech companies. Ride-hailing firms weren’t just glorified taxi services, but were meant to compete with established retail giants. When everyone stood to get rich, everything had infinite potential.”
― Eliot Brown, The Cult of We: WeWork, Adam Neumann, and the Great Startup Delusion

“Gross and Neumann briefly became obsessed with buying a coveted Wu Tang Clan rap album of which only a single copy was made.”
― Eliot Brown, The Cult of We: WeWork, Adam Neumann, and the Great Startup Delusion

“(Rebekah Neumann was largely focused on her acting career; she was known to tell friends as they toured the first office that she chose the coffee, and that it was the “secret” to the business’s success.)”
― Eliot Brown, The Cult of We: WeWork, Adam Neumann, and the Great Startup Delusion

“a figure that didn’t include all the money WeWork spent on expansion and headquarters staff.”
― Eliot Brown, The Cult of We: WeWork, Adam Neumann, and the Great Startup Delusion

“Built into the speculative episode is the euphoria, the mass escape from reality, that excludes any serious contemplation of the true nature of what is taking place. —John Kenneth Galbraith, A Short History of Financial Euphoria”
― Eliot Brown, The Cult of We: WeWork, Adam Neumann, and the Great Startup Delusion