WeWork, once a unicorn, declared bankruptcy in 2023

Why did WeWork fail and why it's still around

Once valued at $47B, WeWork promised to revolutionize office space—but rapid expansion, financial red flags, and a pandemic-driven shift in work culture led to its 2023 bankruptcy. This overview looks at its rise and fall, and what’s next for the coworking giant.

The full story of WeWork, one of the most dramatic startup journeys of all time

WeWork has been through a lot since the office space company was founded as a startup in 2010. From its failed IPO in 2019, to the various leadership antics of its founder, Adam Neumann (some have claimed that he acted like a cult leader at times), to how it navigated remote work trends during the pandemic, this video tells the full story of WeWork's growth, failures, and more.

WeWork filed its first S-1 in 2019

When WeWork prepared to file for its initial public offering in 2019, its S-1 revealed its poor financial state to the public.

SoftBank lost billions of dollars on WeWork. Meanwhile, WeWork’s founder walked away a billionaire

In the years leading up to WeWork’s bankruptcy, the tech holding company SoftBank invested roughly $16B into the company.

WeWork’s S-1 was full of alarming financial and business information that concerned investors and the public

When WeWork’s S-1 came out, investors were particularly concerned about WeWork’s expenses far outpacing its growing revenue and its complex company structure, as well as a few potential conflicts of interest within the company.

‘I realized after I got there it was a cult,’ one former WeWork executive said

WeWork isn’t only known for how it revolutionized modern work, or its spectacular financial rise and fall. It’s also known for its former cultlike company culture under former CEO Adam Neumann, complete with a charismatic leader and “summer camp” company retreats that blurred the lines between work and personal life.

WeWork’s competitors in the coworking space include Industrious and The Malin

WeWork’s story is colored by the times it just couldn’t make its numbers work. Its competitors in the coworking industry, such as Industrious and Convene, seem to be prioritizing slow and stable financial growth instead.

SoftBank acquired a majority stake in WeWork in October 2019

SoftBank is widely considered the biggest victim in the WeWork story, losing billions of dollars that it invested in the company while WeWork’s CEO walked away a billionaire himself.

WeWork marketed itself on community

In a new era of work where many millennials wanted to work for themselves in offices with exposed brick, cold brew on tap, and casual dress codes, WeWork realized these entrepreneurs and startup workers didn’t want to do it alone.

In the beginning, there was Adam (Neumann)

This podcast episode, which includes a telling interview with one of WeWork's first employees, tells the origin story of WeWork—from Neumann's drinking and disheveled clothing, to WeWork's first "summer camp" company party weekends in New York.

See the small apartment WeWork founder Adam Neumann lived in before he was a billionaire

WeWork CEO Adam Neumann used to share a relatively small apartment in New York City with his wife before he became a billionaire off of WeWork. At one point, the apartment rented for $3K per month.

WeWork held controversial ‘summer camp’ retreats for employees

Step inside one of WeWork’s “summer camp” retreats full of drugs, alcohol, and exorbitant company spending.

WeWork makes money via flexible lease options

WeWork makes money by entering long-term leases with office buildings, then providing flexible lease options to its members on a short-term basis. Members get a refreshed, modern space to work in (with consistent coffee on tap, of course), and WeWork gets their consistent membership dues.

Adam Neumann started another real estate company after WeWork

Former WeWork CEO Adam Neumann has attempted to purchase WeWork before, although, thus far, he hasn’t been successful. Since leaving the company, he has founded a residential real estate firm, among other projects.

Many of the 2010s girlboss-era founders experienced a public fall from grace in 2020

In the 2010s, dozens of female founders were celebrated on the covers of business magazines like Inc. for their recent startup success, from Emily Weiss’s Glossier makeup brand to Steph Korey’s Away luggage company. But many of these companies were also the subject of large takedown articles around the year 2020.

A Wall Street Journal podcast examines allegations inside the WEF

In this episode of "The Journal," WSJ reporter Shalini Ramachandran investigates claims from current and former employees that the organization behind Davos fostered a toxic workplace, sparked by an anonymous whistleblower letter in 2025 and internal accounts.

The Wing was a coworking space and private members club before it closed down

The Wing was supposed to be more than a woman’s answer to the popular WeWork coworking spaces. Founder Audrey Gelman envisioned The Wing as a private members club where women could feel empowered and dignified—if they had a few thousand dollars a year for a membership, of course. However, after racism scandals and widespread employee criticism, The Wing ceased operations in 2022.

SoftBank's founder and CEO had a volatile relationship with WeWork's Adam Neumann

SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, as WeWork's largest financier, had been Neumann's biggest champion for years—until he volleyed for Neumann to be removed from his position as WeWork's CEO.

Spellcaster: the rise and fall of Sam Bankman-Fried

The rapid collapse of FTX, one of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, in late 2022 shocked the world. At the center of the fiasco was Sam Bankman-Fried, a 29-year-old wunderkind who had entranced politicians, journalists, financiers, and others with his melding of altruism and digital currency. The sordid details revealed as the empire fell captured public attention—venture into the death spiral with this in-depth podcast from Bloomberg.

The main bank serving Silicon Valley startups and venture capitalists collapsed in 2023

Silicon Valley Bank—the 16th largest bank in the US—served many tech startups in the area as well as many venture capitalists. The bank collapsed in 2023—in a single day, bankers took out $42B.

In 2025, Weight Watchers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after reporting revenue and profit losses for multiple consecutive years, with its stock price losing about 99% of its value between 2018 and 2025.

Airbnb started as a vacation rental startup and soon disrupted the hospitality industry

In this podcast episode, Airbnb gets the "How I Built This" treatment. The "How I Built This" host speaks with the entrepreneurs behind today's largest businesses about how they got started. In this episode, Airbnb's cofounder Joe Gebbia talks about how he built Airbnb.

Explaining the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank

In March 2023, Silicon Valley Bank—the nation's 16th largest bank at the time—collapsed after a rapid run on its deposits. Among other factors, the bank had placed more than half of its investments into long-term bonds, leaving it without the necessary cash on hand as its clients, largely start ups, panicked and withdrew their money at the same time. This visualization lays out the timeline and impact of the collapse.

A deep dive into Enron, one of the largest accounting scandals in history

Investing comes with great opportunities for reward, but it also carries great risk. Investors learned that the hard way when Enron collapsed. Everyone lost money—from the largest institutions on Wall Street to mom-and-pop investors who bought S&P 500 index funds. This series from American Scandal starts with a close-up into an investment manager at Enron who started to unravel the accounting scandal happening behind the scenes. Listen here.

Investment banking giant Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy in September 2008 when it had $619B in debt, making it the largest bankruptcy ever in the US

Nearly all of its 26,000 employees immediately lost their jobs. But in London, a few hundred remained tucked away, working for another decade to wind down the bank’s European business.

Berkshire Hathaway's origin story is strongly intertwined with Warren Buffett's

"Acquired" is a podcast that tells company origin stories—and in one series of episodes, it dives into Berkshire Hathaway's. While the Berkshire Hathaway story ended up becoming three "Acquired" episodes instead of one, Part I explores how Berkshire Hathaway's former CEO became who he is today.

Airbnb's Brian Chesky explains 'Founder Mode' and how he took back control

The short-term rental CEO learned hard lessons through the pandemic, specifically around a culture focused on management and not building products. In the fall of 2024, Chesky gave a well-received speech at a startup conference that prompted debate in the startup world. He summarizes the talk here.

Why can't we just turn the empty offices into apartments?

As both rent prices and mortgage rates rise across the US, many companies have simultaneously continued operating hybrid or remote workforces post-pandemic. A podcast episode dives into why city dwellers aren't all living in their prepandemic break rooms just yet.

What is Chapter 11 bankruptcy?

While there are multiple types of bankruptcies, Chapter 11 is probably the one you've heard about the most. Technically speaking, Chapter 11 bankruptcy involves a reorganization of a business's assets and debts under court supervision. Companies such as Red Lobster, WeWork, and Party City have all filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in recent years. Learn more about it here.

Hooters filed for bankruptcy in March 2025 after being operated by two very distinct operations

For years before that filing, the restaurant group had been operated by two different companies: one owned by private equity, and the other that includes the original founders.

Listen to an interview with a gig economy expert

In this podcast episode, the hosts sit down with NerdWallet Senior News Editor Rick VanderKnyff, a gig economy expert who explains why the sector grew during the COVID-19 pandemic, what defines a gig worker, how gig workers handle their finances, and more.

Listen to a podcast episode where Y Combinator CEO Gary Tan explains why YC tends to outperform many other Silicon Valley startup accelerators.

Listen to a 2026 interview where Bumble's CEO said its stock is down 96% since its IPO 'for no reason'

CEO and Founder Whitney Wolfe Herd said the company is still performing very well. She added that the business makes $1B per year and referred to it as profitable. She went on to say "who knows what people trade stock on?" and that she believes the stock market has written Bumble off as if it were debt

2023's worst performing US IPOs

While an IPO is a huge milestone, it isn't always a total success in the long-term. This data visualization shows some of the worst-performing IPOs of 2023, based on their percentage returns at the end of the year, It includes an NFT gaming company and a Chinese EV battery company.

Every year, nearly 500,000 bankruptcies are filed in the US.

The 2024 Synapse collapse took $90M of people’s life savings with it

In 2024, a banking middleman called Synapse declared bankruptcy. Unfortunately, it also locked roughly 100,000 Americans out of their own money, which prompted a class action lawsuit.

A podcast on America’s coming demographic crisis

This podcast explores how America’s coming demographic crisis is bad for employers. According to Bloomberg, businesses still need humans to make the economy work. However, too few workers in the US are actually working, and too few people are...

The overnight collapse of Ello, a beloved, decade-old social network

Ello launched in 2014 with big dreams to avoid advertising and retain a user-friendly, simple style. But in 2023, the hip social network suddenly shut down, removing nine years of posts with no warning. Artists, writers, and other creators lost nearly a decade of work with no explanation. Read the troubling story here.

A post-game interview with Sophia Amoruso directly after her 2016 Forbes cover

This article from 2016 is a time capsule of sorts. It includes an interview with the person who coined the term “girlboss,” Nasty Gal founder Sophia Amoruso, that took place just after she appeared on the cover of Forbes magazine. We now know that her company would go on to file for bankruptcy the next year.

The dot-com boom sent tech stocks soaring before a historic collapse

A look at the dot-com bubble, when investors poured money into unproven internet startups, driving the Nasdaq to dizzying heights before it crashed by more than 80% after 2000, showing how new technologies can detach markets from reality.

Theranos and Pets.com are among some of the biggest startup failures ever

You might have heard of Theranos, Elizabeth Holmes’s one-time blood testing company that landed the founder in prison for more than a decade after she was charged with fraud. The rest of the startups on a list of five of the biggest startup failures ever might not be as famous as Theranos, but they were met with similarly disastrous fates.

Listen to a podcast episode about the time a 'Bored Ape' NFT—a valuable, unique digital asset stored on a blockchain—was kidnapped.

WellHub is a startup serving roughly 4 million people in 11 countries, providing broad wellness benefits to employees

Valued at $2.4B in 2025, the company helps workers get gym access and meditation apps, in addition to basic healthcare. Listen to the founder of the company, Cesar Cevalho, explain how he scaled the company with Jeff Berman.

Sophia Amoruso reflected on the girlboss movement 10 years later

It has been more than a decade since 2014, the year Sophia Amoruso published her book "#Girlboss," which became a New York Times bestseller. Since then, Amoruso has more or less journeyed through the seven circles of the corporate underworld, and the "girlboss" has been declared dead. This podcast episode lets listeners hear her thoughts on the legacy of the girlboss phenomenon 10 years after she started it.

Rent the Runway recently lost over 90% of its value

The COVID-19 pandemic and increased competition post-2020 are just two factors plaguing the designer clothing rental company.

Visualizing the financial troubles of FTX at the time of its bankruptcy

Just before Sam Bankman-Fried declared FTX bankrupt in November of 2022, he sought to raise funds quickly to try to save the cryptocurrency exchange. As part of that attempt, he sent around a glimpse of the exchange's current balance sheet, which showed the company had liabilities of $9 billion with only $900 million in liquid assets. Check out the visualization here.

The worst US bank runs since 1900

From the Panic of 1907 to the Silicon Valley Bank collapse in 2023, this bank scholar and former Fed official goes into the history of the country's worst bank runs.

The collapse of Archegos Capital Management drew scrutiny to family offices

Archegos, which managed the assets of Bill Hwang, wasn’t subject to the same oversight as traditional investment firms when it collapsed.

A star investment banker was fired, launching a decade-long court fight

Star bankers are the core of an investment banking firm's business, so when Perella Weinberg let their restructuring guru Mike Kramer go in 2015, he sued, launching a ten-year legal fight.

7 prominent investors rejected Airbnb in its early days

Airbnb is arguably known as one of the most successful startup stories of all time. But back in 2008, many prominent investors rejected their pitch when they went out to raise money—and Airbnb's founder still has the rejection emails to prove it.