WEBVTT - WeWork Part 2: The Bar Is Now at Your Desk 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:02.800 Let me introduce you to a guy named Carl Pierre. 0:00:03.480 --> 0:00:06.000 Carl was twenty five years old when he became an 0:00:06.040 --> 0:00:09.480 employee at the we Work office in d C. He 0:00:09.560 --> 0:00:11.799 was just a few years out of college. He was 0:00:11.840 --> 0:00:15.160 excited about joining this fast growing startup, and he was 0:00:15.200 --> 0:00:18.560 surprised by how much of his job involved working with beer, 0:00:19.200 --> 0:00:23.439 tapping a beer keg, getting licenses to serve beer. And 0:00:23.520 --> 0:00:26.440 one morning he got a call there had been a 0:00:26.440 --> 0:00:31.280 beer disaster. This one dude, who turns out was like 0:00:31.320 --> 0:00:33.879 a guest of a member or something, was so like 0:00:34.159 --> 0:00:36.360 gung ho trying to get beer out. He broke the tap, 0:00:36.840 --> 0:00:41.240 beer started pouring out, and he's walked away. So I 0:00:41.280 --> 0:00:43.920 get a call the next day, the very next day, 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:47.360 from the shoe store underneath our Chinatown location saying, dude, 0:00:48.080 --> 0:00:51.000 everything all of our inventories covered in gross, sticky beer, 0:00:51.280 --> 0:00:53.240 Like what the hell is going on? And I looked 0:00:53.240 --> 0:00:55.960 through the security recordings and I'm like I wanted to 0:00:56.000 --> 0:00:58.800 scream and like break everything. I was like this guy, 0:00:59.480 --> 0:01:01.920 this dude just uh. It was like, you know, a 0:01:02.000 --> 0:01:04.320 keg holds what nine nine beers, So imagine nine nine 0:01:04.360 --> 0:01:07.760 beers pouring down and pooling and yeah, of course it 0:01:07.840 --> 0:01:10.000 leaked through. To take out my iPhone and take photos 0:01:10.000 --> 0:01:11.880 from the insurance company. Oh, it was this whole thing. 0:01:12.600 --> 0:01:15.319 Beer was a central part of we worked brand, and 0:01:15.360 --> 0:01:18.039 here it was leaking through the floor and it was 0:01:18.080 --> 0:01:20.680 just like pools of beer. The entire place smells like 0:01:20.680 --> 0:01:24.000 a brewery. So not only did our space smell like awfulness, 0:01:24.000 --> 0:01:26.440 like it smelled like a yeast factory because it just 0:01:26.600 --> 0:01:28.440 kind of like percolated over the night too. When we 0:01:28.480 --> 0:01:30.160 wants all the beer poured out, they just stayed that 0:01:30.160 --> 0:01:33.080 way and then you know, the guy's floor to you 0:01:33.120 --> 0:01:34.720 just smelled like the entire block it smell like beer 0:01:34.760 --> 0:01:37.280 because when you open the doors, like a full keg, 0:01:37.400 --> 0:01:40.000 is so much booze. There's so much liquid and imagine 0:01:40.000 --> 0:01:42.320 pouring all the onto the floor and Lennon just walking 0:01:42.319 --> 0:01:47.640 away for hours. Hours you're listening to Foundering. I'm your host, 0:01:47.680 --> 0:01:51.240 Ellen Hewitt. In the previous episode, we visited Adam Newman's 0:01:51.320 --> 0:01:54.760 childhood Kibbutz. We wanted to understand how it inspired we 0:01:54.840 --> 0:01:58.600 work and Adam's ideas about community and today in episode 0:01:58.600 --> 0:02:00.760 two of our season on we were we're going to 0:02:00.880 --> 0:02:03.240 tell you about what it was like inside we Work 0:02:03.360 --> 0:02:06.560 during its early chaotic years of growth as the company 0:02:06.560 --> 0:02:11.160 burst onto the business scene. We'll start around for a 0:02:11.160 --> 0:02:13.840 few years after the financial crash and the business world 0:02:13.960 --> 0:02:16.239 is getting back on its feet. There's a huge rise 0:02:16.280 --> 0:02:19.120 and remote work, a huge rise and distributed work. That's 0:02:19.160 --> 0:02:21.800 Teddy Kramer and early we Work employee. There are companies 0:02:21.800 --> 0:02:24.160 that don't even have office space that empower their employees 0:02:24.160 --> 0:02:26.360 to work from wherever they are. But we're still human. 0:02:26.720 --> 0:02:29.919 We're still you know, creatures that want to be around 0:02:29.919 --> 0:02:34.160 other people, and people need places. Facebook had just gone public, 0:02:34.400 --> 0:02:37.079 linked in too, and there was this buzz in the air, 0:02:37.520 --> 0:02:41.040 especially around startups two thousand twelve, two thirteen, when it 0:02:41.120 --> 0:02:44.519 was very early, when it was exciting, when that kind 0:02:44.520 --> 0:02:48.640 of startup dream was at its peak. I remember Instagram 0:02:48.639 --> 0:02:51.880 had just been bought by Facebook for a billion dollars, 0:02:51.919 --> 0:02:54.320 So that idea that anyone could just sit there, a 0:02:54.360 --> 0:02:57.320 couple of people, build an app and get rich. Ron 0:02:57.400 --> 0:02:59.840 John Roy was an early customer at we Work. He 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:02.720 just quit his job to become an entrepreneur. And in 0:03:02.760 --> 0:03:04.959 fact it was Teddy who sold Ron john his we 0:03:05.040 --> 0:03:07.480 Work membership. This is great because I get to go 0:03:07.520 --> 0:03:09.520 back to all my cheesy sales lines that I used 0:03:09.520 --> 0:03:12.160 to give their perspective members. My favorite line I used 0:03:12.200 --> 0:03:14.560 to use was that it's a fortune experience when you're 0:03:14.560 --> 0:03:18.080 not yet a fortune five company. Teddy's customers were mostly 0:03:18.080 --> 0:03:22.880 small businesses, freelancers, and entrepreneurs. For them, getting office space 0:03:22.919 --> 0:03:26.880 was a challenge. Most polices required a commitment of several years. 0:03:27.360 --> 0:03:30.000 We Work offered something different. You could easily rent a 0:03:30.040 --> 0:03:32.720 desk or small office month by month. I think in 0:03:32.720 --> 0:03:36.040 those early days it worked. I loved the idea of 0:03:36.080 --> 0:03:38.560 the facility. I need a conference from great, I can 0:03:38.600 --> 0:03:40.480 walk in and book it. I you know, need a 0:03:40.560 --> 0:03:45.320 desk that's inexpensive and uh is non committal in the 0:03:45.360 --> 0:03:48.760 traditional you know, commercial real estate sense. Um. And also 0:03:48.800 --> 0:03:50.400 I want to be around like minded people. I want 0:03:50.440 --> 0:03:53.080 to be around people who are going through the same 0:03:53.080 --> 0:03:56.440 struggles and going through the same challenges, but also who 0:03:56.480 --> 0:03:59.640 want to celebrate my success. Ron John, who was working 0:03:59.680 --> 0:04:01.680 out of a we Work office in New York, was 0:04:01.720 --> 0:04:05.480 happy to be alongside other startup founders, but more importantly, 0:04:05.680 --> 0:04:08.160 he felt we Worked with selling him something else. It 0:04:08.280 --> 0:04:11.640 was selling him a sense of legitimacy. They delivered a 0:04:11.680 --> 0:04:16.640 great product. The actual space itself. It validated you, especially 0:04:16.640 --> 0:04:19.400 when you're kind of an early stage start up flailing around. 0:04:20.320 --> 0:04:22.719 The space was nice enough that you know, you have 0:04:22.760 --> 0:04:25.640 a meeting, people come in, they think you are doing 0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:30.000 something correct. My parents, who as Indian parents, were very 0:04:30.040 --> 0:04:35.120 nervous about me doing something startup in my thirties. They 0:04:35.160 --> 0:04:36.919 came and they saw and this is when we were 0:04:36.960 --> 0:04:40.279 at the We Work at Broadway, which was on the 0:04:40.320 --> 0:04:43.560 twenty floor, this kind of like gleaming view of the 0:04:43.600 --> 0:04:48.279 financial district. And again they thought we must be doing 0:04:48.360 --> 0:04:52.479 something right, and at the time we weren't. Ron John's 0:04:52.480 --> 0:04:54.560 desk at as We Work office was next to something 0:04:54.640 --> 0:04:58.560 particularly important, the fruit water. It's a big jog of 0:04:58.640 --> 0:05:00.960 drinking water that has fruit cut up into it, kind 0:05:00.960 --> 0:05:04.359 of fancy. So one thing I definitely remember from the 0:05:04.400 --> 0:05:07.760 time was the fruit water. Somehow this kind of became 0:05:07.800 --> 0:05:13.320 a central sales point for the we Work employees and 0:05:13.360 --> 0:05:17.560 even Adam Newman. Anytime their investors in there, or even 0:05:17.600 --> 0:05:20.200 if he was bringing around people to show off the space, 0:05:20.560 --> 0:05:23.039 you could bring them straight to the fruit water, talk 0:05:23.120 --> 0:05:26.320 about it loudly and proclaim, you know, we're in the 0:05:26.360 --> 0:05:30.640 midst of the future of work. And offer the fruit water. Okay, 0:05:30.680 --> 0:05:32.760 so let's back up for a minute. Yes, we are 0:05:32.800 --> 0:05:36.240 actually talking about water that has chopped up fruit floating 0:05:36.279 --> 0:05:38.800 in it. Throughout the course of this story, there's gonna 0:05:38.800 --> 0:05:41.240 be a lot of silly things that are actually important. 0:05:41.640 --> 0:05:45.200 Fruit water is one of those things. It sounds small, 0:05:45.240 --> 0:05:47.640 but it became a symbol of the we Work brand 0:05:47.800 --> 0:05:50.880 in all their offices around the world, and people got 0:05:50.920 --> 0:05:53.479 really into it. The other day, I was looking it 0:05:53.560 --> 0:05:55.680 up on Twitter and I found a picture where the 0:05:55.720 --> 0:05:58.839 fruit water had cantaloupe in it, cut into the shape 0:05:58.880 --> 0:06:05.040 of dolphins. Cantaloup dolphins. Yeah. Actually, one time, I can 0:06:05.080 --> 0:06:08.320 say I looked up and I was sitting on some 0:06:08.400 --> 0:06:12.520 kind of ball, looked to my left and Elliot Spitzer 0:06:12.760 --> 0:06:16.760 was standing right there, kind of looking over looking across 0:06:16.839 --> 0:06:20.679 the entire entire floor with a smile on his face. 0:06:20.920 --> 0:06:23.400 Elliot Spitzer, for those of you who don't know, is 0:06:23.440 --> 0:06:27.080 the former somewhat disgraced governor of New York and he 0:06:27.160 --> 0:06:30.480 was getting Adam's pitch to investors. Look at this excitement 0:06:30.520 --> 0:06:33.760 and energy. Adam was using We Works paying customers to 0:06:33.800 --> 0:06:36.400 attract more money. It was almost like we were animals. 0:06:36.400 --> 0:06:39.239 In a zoo or rats in a lab, like people 0:06:39.360 --> 0:06:41.480 would just kind of stand on the periphery and watch 0:06:41.520 --> 0:06:45.080 everyone sitting there. So if you are an older investor 0:06:45.839 --> 0:06:48.760 who has no idea what's happening, and suddenly you just 0:06:48.880 --> 0:06:53.640 see young kids and shorts with laptops and uh, and 0:06:53.839 --> 0:06:58.000 your your entire construction of work in your mind forever 0:06:58.640 --> 0:07:02.280 has been suits and offices and cubicles, it would definitely 0:07:02.320 --> 0:07:06.200 feel like maybe the secret is here. And it did 0:07:06.240 --> 0:07:08.279 feel like there was something more here than just the 0:07:08.360 --> 0:07:12.120 desks that was intentional on We Works part. From Robjohn's 0:07:12.160 --> 0:07:14.120 point of view, we Work was doing the same thing 0:07:14.200 --> 0:07:17.080 as a lot of other rapidly growing companies in the tents. 0:07:17.600 --> 0:07:20.400 They weren't just selling a product. They were selling something 0:07:20.520 --> 0:07:23.560 much bigger than that. The desks were good, I mean, 0:07:23.640 --> 0:07:27.320 the product was a very good one, but it had 0:07:27.360 --> 0:07:29.640 to be about so much more and it couldn't just 0:07:29.720 --> 0:07:32.080 be stopped at We're going to sell you a good 0:07:32.120 --> 0:07:34.880 desk in a fun environment like it had to be 0:07:34.960 --> 0:07:40.600 about transforming humanity. You're selling the weed generation and transformational 0:07:41.640 --> 0:07:44.520 future of work and life and the way we interact. 0:07:45.360 --> 0:07:49.120 Uber called itself ride sharing, even though it's just kind 0:07:49.120 --> 0:07:53.800 of a modernized taxi fleet, but they had that community 0:07:54.080 --> 0:07:58.440 word embedded into it. And yeah, Adam was constantly evoking 0:07:58.480 --> 0:08:02.760 community when talking about work. It's that community. Being surrounded 0:08:02.760 --> 0:08:05.160 by a group of like minded individuals, being part of 0:08:05.240 --> 0:08:09.240 something bigger than yourself inspires people to work harder, spend 0:08:09.240 --> 0:08:11.120 more time at work, and just have fun doing it. 0:08:11.840 --> 0:08:14.120 We Work wasn't the only coworking space I was active 0:08:14.160 --> 0:08:16.880 at the time, so it had rivals paying attention to 0:08:16.920 --> 0:08:20.480 how it ran its business. One of those rivals was Industrious. 0:08:20.840 --> 0:08:24.640 It's CEO, Jamie Hodari, noticed a few things about We Work. 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:29.040 Jamie was confused by we Work because Adam spent more 0:08:29.080 --> 0:08:32.320 time talking about community than he did fast internet or 0:08:32.320 --> 0:08:35.760 clean office space. Jamie had done customer research and found 0:08:35.760 --> 0:08:38.520 that the idea of we wasn't that important to people 0:08:38.559 --> 0:08:41.200 who just wanted to rent a desk. But We Work 0:08:41.280 --> 0:08:44.680 was also expanding so rapidly it had gone from zero 0:08:44.800 --> 0:08:47.720 to a billion dollar valuation in less than four years. 0:08:48.400 --> 0:08:51.440 It left Jamie wondering was we Work onto something that 0:08:51.520 --> 0:08:54.480 he wasn't able to see. One of many ways in 0:08:54.520 --> 0:08:57.760 which I think, as a WE Work competitor, you're stuck 0:08:57.840 --> 0:09:00.560 saying like, do they not really get at it. Is 0:09:00.600 --> 0:09:03.040 it that they are out of touch with what the 0:09:03.120 --> 0:09:08.040 actual nature of rising demand is or the actual reasons 0:09:08.080 --> 0:09:13.000 are that adoption rates are rising of their product, or 0:09:13.120 --> 0:09:15.559 is it that they're on another level. They're seeing around 0:09:15.559 --> 0:09:18.160 the next corner, you know, they're seeing everything we're seeing, 0:09:18.280 --> 0:09:21.080 and then the stuff that comes after that, or the 0:09:21.120 --> 0:09:24.560 stuff that people care about but can't actually articulate or 0:09:24.559 --> 0:09:27.840 put into words. So Jamie was questioning whether people really 0:09:27.880 --> 0:09:32.360 wanted to pay for community for the aspirational, scrappy culture 0:09:32.400 --> 0:09:35.319 that we work was selling. The slogans on its walls 0:09:35.360 --> 0:09:39.679 saying better together, do what you love, always exploring cheers. 0:09:40.760 --> 0:09:43.280 Jamie didn't get why Adam never talked directly about real 0:09:43.400 --> 0:09:47.599 estate or business plans. Instead, he talked about humanity and enlightenment. 0:09:48.200 --> 0:09:50.280 I think that was maybe the first sniff for the 0:09:50.320 --> 0:09:54.239 first moment of saying, this company has a kind of oblique, 0:09:55.080 --> 0:09:58.040 indirect way of approaching things that it wasn't a company 0:09:58.080 --> 0:10:03.199 given to straight talk basically um and that ended up 0:10:03.240 --> 0:10:05.360 becoming a predictor of a lot of things to come. 0:10:05.880 --> 0:10:09.839 Adam wanted to do loftier things. He wanted to transform humanity, 0:10:09.920 --> 0:10:11.920 and in his mind, the first step to that was 0:10:12.000 --> 0:10:15.559 transforming work. He wanted to do it by making work fun. 0:10:16.440 --> 0:10:18.880 It sounds simple, but it was a pretty novel idea 0:10:19.400 --> 0:10:21.880 and he put it into action At We Work. It 0:10:22.280 --> 0:10:26.840 sells fun, I mean it sells excitement. You don't even 0:10:26.840 --> 0:10:29.000 have to go out to a bar club. We will 0:10:29.040 --> 0:10:31.840 bring that all to your office space where you sit 0:10:31.880 --> 0:10:34.959 and do work. It's a pretty good deal. The bar 0:10:35.280 --> 0:10:38.040 is now at your desk. We give free beer in 0:10:38.040 --> 0:10:40.800 all of our buildings. We gave nine glasses of beer 0:10:40.880 --> 0:10:44.040 last month, which is a number we're proud of. People 0:10:44.160 --> 0:10:48.000 are staying late at the office. The parties take place 0:10:48.160 --> 0:10:53.400 at the office itself. It's that co mingling of life 0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:56.960 and work and kind of like lack of division between 0:10:57.040 --> 0:11:01.240 your office and party. You're going out to a bar. 0:11:02.040 --> 0:11:05.199 To create that environment, community managers like Teddy had to 0:11:05.280 --> 0:11:07.720 learn how to do a lot of random manual tasks 0:11:08.160 --> 0:11:10.480 like tapping the beer keg or grabbing a bunch of 0:11:10.520 --> 0:11:14.000 members to film a viral video meme. And for those 0:11:14.040 --> 0:11:15.719 who love to google, if you can find the We 0:11:15.880 --> 0:11:18.800 Work Labs Harlem Shake video, I highly recommend you look 0:11:18.800 --> 0:11:21.520 it up. It's actually pretty fun. Um. I'm the mermaid 0:11:21.520 --> 0:11:23.560 in the bottom right corner, so you can find me. 0:11:24.480 --> 0:11:27.280 I'm right there. But but to me, that was that 0:11:27.360 --> 0:11:32.680 was amazing. That was so much fun. Right. Oh that 0:11:32.800 --> 0:11:36.160 is Oh that's you in the mermaidaid. That's quite a look. 0:11:36.360 --> 0:11:38.679 So I'm wearing a purple shell brod and those are 0:11:38.720 --> 0:11:42.360 real shells. Uh that I had to get custom tailored 0:11:42.360 --> 0:11:46.960 to stay up. Um. I had a custom mermaid skirt um, 0:11:47.000 --> 0:11:49.240 and I am front and center dancing as a mermaid 0:11:49.559 --> 0:11:52.960 while making sure that my shells stay up. Um. You 0:11:53.000 --> 0:11:54.840 asked how I felt. I loved it. I thought it 0:11:54.880 --> 0:11:58.240 was so much fun. We worked at something different. It 0:11:58.360 --> 0:12:01.240 was work, but it was fun, which may have come 0:12:01.240 --> 0:12:04.880 from Adam himself. He has this reputation publicly of being 0:12:04.920 --> 0:12:09.640 out of control, aggressive, a partier, a dealmaker, but he 0:12:09.679 --> 0:12:14.640 was also just entertaining. Here's Jamie again. The impression you 0:12:14.679 --> 0:12:16.600 get when you spend a bit of time with them 0:12:16.800 --> 0:12:20.800 is not just of this kind of tall, brash force 0:12:20.840 --> 0:12:25.840 of nature, but also of someone who seems like he's 0:12:25.880 --> 0:12:28.760 having fun. You know, when you hear these landlords saying, 0:12:28.760 --> 0:12:31.280 we did a WorldWind tour of this city and we 0:12:31.400 --> 0:12:37.760 drink tequila and whatever. You know, maybe the unspoken magnetism 0:12:37.800 --> 0:12:40.480 of it is in part that business isn't often that fun, 0:12:40.600 --> 0:12:43.199 you know, it's it's dry, and so spending the day 0:12:43.240 --> 0:12:46.160 with someone who seems like they're on this rocket ship 0:12:46.160 --> 0:12:49.240 and loving every minute of it, that's the most magnetic 0:12:49.280 --> 0:12:53.840 thing of all. This magnetism also pulled in prospective employees. 0:12:54.320 --> 0:12:57.400 When Carl, the community manager in d C, walked into 0:12:57.400 --> 0:12:59.560 a we Work office for his first interview, he had 0:12:59.600 --> 0:13:02.680 never seen anything like it. That was blown away by 0:13:02.720 --> 0:13:06.880 the aesthetics and the the electricity of the room of 0:13:06.920 --> 0:13:10.360 where these people were working. It was just entirely, entirely 0:13:10.440 --> 0:13:15.440 different and very very young, very my generation vibe the 0:13:15.520 --> 0:13:19.559 entire place Carl joined we Work in and he felt 0:13:19.600 --> 0:13:23.160 like he had tumbled into a millennial wonderland. The mid 0:13:23.160 --> 0:13:26.640 century modern everything um. The fact that they had like 0:13:26.679 --> 0:13:29.240 cold brew on tap and all the brands I loved, 0:13:29.280 --> 0:13:31.960 all under one roof. It was just it was overload 0:13:31.960 --> 0:13:34.880 almost um, and it really sold me on the concept. 0:13:35.240 --> 0:13:37.920 We work with a company that celebrated bringing people together, 0:13:38.280 --> 0:13:40.760 and they put that into practice with their own employees. 0:13:40.960 --> 0:13:44.360 Every week, every Monday night, we Work held in all 0:13:44.480 --> 0:13:47.680 hands meeting and it lasted for hours, and it was 0:13:47.760 --> 0:13:52.120 called thank God It's Monday. T g i AM for short. 0:13:52.800 --> 0:13:56.199 Here's Cody Quinn, an early employee. So t g i 0:13:56.280 --> 0:14:00.880 ams were they write that. So they had these company 0:14:00.920 --> 0:14:04.000 what meetings called thank God It's Monday. Um, I literally 0:14:04.000 --> 0:14:07.320 get goose bumps thinking about it, because Mondays were rough. 0:14:07.840 --> 0:14:10.480 Thank God It's Monday was meant to be something fresh 0:14:10.559 --> 0:14:14.320 and different, a celebration about loving your work, but many 0:14:14.320 --> 0:14:16.960 employees seem to hate it and meant staying late at 0:14:16.960 --> 0:14:20.200 work after a long day, often without overtime pay. There's 0:14:20.200 --> 0:14:22.160 a lot of posturing with a lot of like egos. 0:14:22.400 --> 0:14:25.120 People just kind of like peacocking on stage like thank 0:14:25.160 --> 0:14:27.720 God It's Monday. Like they just wanted to be cool 0:14:27.880 --> 0:14:31.520 and like flex their position. And sometimes these meetings turned 0:14:31.520 --> 0:14:35.360 into celebrations for the growing business m seed by Adam. 0:14:35.400 --> 0:14:39.320 Here's Cody again, you know, like after him talking about 0:14:39.400 --> 0:14:41.560 himself for like a half hour, like he's like, all right, 0:14:41.600 --> 0:14:43.240 we're having a party, and then all of a sudden, 0:14:43.240 --> 0:14:45.960 these trays of tequila shots come out and and like 0:14:46.040 --> 0:14:49.160 it's a big party, and like even to the extent 0:14:49.240 --> 0:14:52.400 that there they were encouraging people to get drunk enough 0:14:52.480 --> 0:14:56.200 that they would pay for Uber's home. We Work asn't 0:14:56.240 --> 0:14:58.720 the only company partying like this in the twenty tens. 0:14:59.160 --> 0:15:00.760 If you worked at a art up any time in 0:15:00.760 --> 0:15:03.560 the last decade, maybe some of this sounds familiar to you, 0:15:04.040 --> 0:15:07.480 staying late in the office for mandatory parties, free booze, 0:15:07.720 --> 0:15:10.640 the blurring of life and work. What makes We Work 0:15:10.680 --> 0:15:13.840 special is that they took startup culture to the next level. 0:15:14.280 --> 0:15:17.560 They were actually selling this culture to their customers, and 0:15:17.600 --> 0:15:20.120 We Work found that there was a huge appetite for it. 0:15:20.600 --> 0:15:23.840 The office party that never ends. We'll be right back. 0:15:29.240 --> 0:15:31.960 So before the break, we talked about we Works. Thank 0:15:32.000 --> 0:15:35.080 God it's Monday meetings. These all hands meetings are a 0:15:35.120 --> 0:15:38.320 really important aspect of we Works company culture. It's how 0:15:38.360 --> 0:15:40.920 we Work rallied the troops and shared the inside take 0:15:40.960 --> 0:15:43.400 on what was going on at this rapidly growing company. 0:15:43.720 --> 0:15:46.960 Here's Miguel McKelvey warming up the crowd for Adam at 0:15:47.000 --> 0:15:50.040 one of these meetings. Um, it's just as excited as 0:15:50.080 --> 0:15:53.040 I am. And I'm happy to introduce Adam our CEO, 0:15:56.440 --> 0:15:58.720 and I'm gonna play for you. Recordings of several of 0:15:58.760 --> 0:16:02.600 these meetings from twenty fifteen and right in the middle 0:16:02.600 --> 0:16:05.600 of we Works rise. These tapes were never meant to 0:16:05.600 --> 0:16:08.920 be heard outside of the company ever, and they captured 0:16:09.040 --> 0:16:12.640 this very intriguing and revealing aspect of we Work, this 0:16:12.840 --> 0:16:16.560 internal raw ra. You'll be hearing snippets throughout the season. 0:16:17.120 --> 0:16:25.280 Hey hey, hey, I know you just to set the scene. 0:16:25.600 --> 0:16:28.160 In these meetings, Adam is usually speaking in front of 0:16:28.160 --> 0:16:31.520 a podium. We Work employees are crowded around him, sitting 0:16:31.520 --> 0:16:33.920 on the floor because it's so packed. In one of 0:16:33.960 --> 0:16:35.880 the videos, he's wearing a black t shirt that says 0:16:35.960 --> 0:16:39.000 creator on it. He's standing in front of a gone 0:16:39.440 --> 0:16:43.280 with we Work engraved on it. There's a lot of room. 0:16:43.360 --> 0:16:47.480 Let's sit a little bit in the back. That's great. 0:16:48.440 --> 0:16:53.120 You can sat next to the gone. There's more seats 0:16:53.160 --> 0:16:57.240 over there. This is a different atom from the yearning 0:16:57.320 --> 0:17:00.400 kids struggling to fit in at the Kibbutz. He's different 0:17:00.440 --> 0:17:03.680 also from the guy trying and failing to innovate high 0:17:03.720 --> 0:17:06.359 heels and baby clothing. He had just been featured in 0:17:06.440 --> 0:17:10.080 Forbes in a splashy spread titled inside the Phenomenal Rise 0:17:10.119 --> 0:17:13.040 of We Work, and now he's on stage surrounded by 0:17:13.040 --> 0:17:16.680 his employees and telecasting two hundreds more. I can't get 0:17:16.720 --> 0:17:19.600 over how he keeps introducing himself. I'm Adam, nice to 0:17:19.600 --> 0:17:22.119 meet you. As if they don't know who he is, 0:17:22.280 --> 0:17:31.880 they work for him. Okay, can everybody hear me? Part 0:17:31.880 --> 0:17:34.120 of what made working at We Worked so intense during 0:17:34.160 --> 0:17:39.200 these years was the company's rapid expansion. Look at some numbers. Now, 0:17:39.240 --> 0:17:41.720 these numbers are are actual numbers, so it is what 0:17:41.840 --> 0:17:44.280 it is. Adam used these growth numbers to get his 0:17:44.320 --> 0:17:47.400 employees excited about what they were accomplishing. Think you look 0:17:48.200 --> 0:17:52.520 one building, four buildings, that means you added three still 0:17:52.560 --> 0:17:56.280 had it on we were sleeping. I'm not sure what 0:17:56.320 --> 0:17:58.480 we were doing. We had it only two buildings, were 0:17:58.480 --> 0:18:02.119 going backwards. And then twenty fourteen, which is when in 0:18:03.600 --> 0:18:05.080 which a lot of you came, We went from nine 0:18:05.119 --> 0:18:08.040 buildings to twenty three. Were now at thirty four buildings, 0:18:08.080 --> 0:18:12.680 which means we've already added four new markets with Berkeley, Amsterdam, Chicago, 0:18:12.760 --> 0:18:15.800 and Austin, Texas. The numbers were doubling or tripling year 0:18:15.840 --> 0:18:18.400 by year. Adam told them that what they were doing 0:18:18.520 --> 0:18:24.680 was completely unprecedented. Our physical growth in yrse teen, assuming 0:18:24.680 --> 0:18:26.680 we're just similar to what we're planning or more. It 0:18:26.760 --> 0:18:29.040 is going to be the fastest physical growth in the 0:18:29.119 --> 0:18:31.399 history of the world, at least as far as I 0:18:31.400 --> 0:18:33.200 can tell, at least for the past. I'm not sure 0:18:33.200 --> 0:18:35.960 about Roman times, and some of those times there might 0:18:35.960 --> 0:18:40.320 have been some very high growth companies there. Okay, so 0:18:40.400 --> 0:18:43.320 here's my read on what he's saying. I think Adam 0:18:43.480 --> 0:18:47.160 is only half kidding here. He's obviously joking about there 0:18:47.160 --> 0:18:50.160 being startups during Roman times, but he's not joking when 0:18:50.160 --> 0:18:52.399 he says that we Work is growing like no one else. 0:18:52.760 --> 0:18:55.240 They were opening up buildings all over the world, even 0:18:55.280 --> 0:18:58.480 though they've only been around for a few years. So 0:18:58.600 --> 0:19:02.480 this video was taped in mid right before I started 0:19:02.480 --> 0:19:05.080 covering we Work. At the time, they were seen as 0:19:05.119 --> 0:19:08.520 this hot, rising startup. The company was valued at ten 0:19:08.560 --> 0:19:11.960 billion dollars. Most of the media coverage marveled at how 0:19:12.000 --> 0:19:14.840 fast they were growing, how much money they'd raised, and 0:19:14.880 --> 0:19:17.359 they asked a few questions about whether it was really 0:19:17.400 --> 0:19:19.400 all it was hyped up to be, but there wasn't 0:19:19.480 --> 0:19:23.320 much criticism out there. When I started watching these videos 0:19:23.320 --> 0:19:26.000 of all hands meetings, it was the first time that 0:19:26.040 --> 0:19:28.640 I got to hear what Adam was like inside the office, 0:19:29.119 --> 0:19:31.320 what he told his employees, and not what he told 0:19:31.359 --> 0:19:34.600 reporters or the public, And it was really different from 0:19:34.600 --> 0:19:37.440 the shiny, polished narrative that we were put out there. 0:19:38.040 --> 0:19:40.560 In the tape, you hear Adam say things that are 0:19:40.600 --> 0:19:44.560 pretty revealing. Here he is addressing new hires gathered at 0:19:44.560 --> 0:19:47.040 the meeting. You guys are about to find out. We're 0:19:47.040 --> 0:19:49.639 really nice to give him the first thirty days. The 0:19:49.800 --> 0:19:52.200 second thirty days were made by day six. You on, 0:19:52.320 --> 0:19:56.359 you'll know our truth. You'll know our truth. What strikes 0:19:56.400 --> 0:19:59.560 me here is how Adam is saying something weirdly ominous 0:19:59.600 --> 0:20:02.520 to his employees. It's kind of joking, but it's also 0:20:02.600 --> 0:20:05.560 clearly not a joke. I feel like I should take 0:20:05.560 --> 0:20:07.919 a moment here and tell you how I got these tapes. 0:20:08.520 --> 0:20:11.000 They were given to me by an employee. She was 0:20:11.080 --> 0:20:14.280 upset about how we Work was operating, and after she 0:20:14.359 --> 0:20:17.320 shared the recordings, we Work turned around and sued her. 0:20:18.200 --> 0:20:20.840 It's an interesting story. You'll hear it all in full 0:20:21.000 --> 0:20:23.800 later in the series. One of the most fun things 0:20:23.880 --> 0:20:25.960 is when you see a new employee and you know 0:20:26.080 --> 0:20:29.640 two things. One they have no clue what they got 0:20:29.640 --> 0:20:33.040 themselves into. That's a fact. Whatever they think they know, 0:20:33.080 --> 0:20:36.160 whatever their friends told them, whatever you told them, they 0:20:36.160 --> 0:20:38.120 don't know. And don't matter how much you're gonna tell them. 0:20:38.280 --> 0:20:40.720 They won't know. They won't know until they did the 0:20:40.840 --> 0:20:43.160 first all night, or they won't know until they did 0:20:43.200 --> 0:20:45.520 the first summit. They won't know until they did the 0:20:45.600 --> 0:20:48.240 first summer camp. But until you get to experience all 0:20:48.280 --> 0:20:52.560 of that, you don't know. I started talking to a 0:20:52.600 --> 0:20:55.800 lot of current and former we Work employees. I wanted 0:20:55.840 --> 0:20:58.800 to understand the company better, and many of them told 0:20:58.800 --> 0:21:02.720 me about that withline that Adam was just describing, Their 0:21:02.840 --> 0:21:05.840 first few months on the job were a shock. Things 0:21:05.840 --> 0:21:08.080 were much more frantic than it seemed from the outside. 0:21:08.520 --> 0:21:12.320 This incredible growth, growth that Adam compared to Roman times, 0:21:12.800 --> 0:21:17.000 meant that internally it was chaos. Here's Teddy again. We 0:21:17.040 --> 0:21:20.080 opened up a building in New York down in Soho. Um. 0:21:20.680 --> 0:21:22.440 We didn't have a functioning bathroom on the first day. 0:21:22.840 --> 0:21:24.480 Um so I had to go down the block to 0:21:24.520 --> 0:21:26.480 a local coffee shop and buy out all of their 0:21:26.480 --> 0:21:28.879 pastries and told them that if someone came in with 0:21:28.920 --> 0:21:31.520 a wee Work keycard that they would be able to 0:21:31.600 --> 0:21:34.480 use the bathroom. There's the saying you you know you've 0:21:34.480 --> 0:21:38.240 got three options fast, cheap, and right, but you only 0:21:38.240 --> 0:21:40.800 get to pick two. What are you gonna pick? You know, 0:21:40.800 --> 0:21:42.679 when we work, it was always fast and cheap. I 0:21:42.720 --> 0:21:45.520 know it sounds crazy to open an office with no bathroom, 0:21:45.880 --> 0:21:48.800 but there were so many more stories like this. When 0:21:48.800 --> 0:21:50.560 we opened up our first building in DC, we didn't 0:21:50.560 --> 0:21:53.000 have coffee machines. So on Super Bowl Sunday we were 0:21:53.000 --> 0:21:55.439 opening up the day after Super Bowl Sunday, I had 0:21:55.480 --> 0:21:58.000