Property Week went to WeWork's annual Summer Camp festival two weeks ago and described its experience in an amazing, terrifying article.
The fervour described as being on display among WeWork's (ebitda-adjusting) community is alarming, with the dedication to founder and CEO Adam Neumann not dissimilar to the most culty of cults.
From Property Week:
When Neumann, flanked by his wife Rebekah and Miguel McKelvey, the co-founder of WeWork, finally emerges, he is greeted with cries and screams akin to those usually reserved for popstars. People spontaneously start singing “ole, ole, ole”. For a good 15 minutes, Rebekah and McKelvey, who wears a T-shirt that says ‘Eat more plants’, applaud Neumann’s “incredible levels of energy”. Neumann, who himself is sporting a ‘Let’s meat in the middle’ T-shirt, nods enthusiastically and replies: “When you believe in something bigger than yourself, you don’t need much sleep.” Welcome to the relentlessly upbeat – some argue cult-like – world of WeWork.
It gets nuttier from there. The whole article is worth a read. But here are what we consider to be the top three most eye-popping bits (with our emphasis):
1.
Rebekah, who is also WeWork’s chief brand officer and the cousin of Hollywood actress Gwyneth Paltrow, begins to cry. Pointing to her husband’s sister Adi in the front row, she declares: “I’m so grateful you took care of Adam.” She also thanks Adi for helping pay Adam’s rent when he first moved to the US and – between the tears – adds: “You helped him create the biggest family in the world. A big part of being a woman is to help men [like Adam] manifest their calling in life.”
2.
Neumann laps up the praise, promising: “In five years, WeWork will be the new norm for education. There are 150 million orphans in the world, but we want to solve this problem and give them a new family: the WeWork family.”
3.
Mark, who works in WeWork’s tech division, believes Neumann is simply misunderstood: “ I can see why you might think this is like a cult, but working in tech we are isolated from that.“
Along with its WeWork Creator Awards, Summer Camp is seen as ”a critical means through which we express our key values — inspiration, entrepreneurship, authenticity, tenacity, gratitude and togetherness“, the company said in its bond prospectus earlier this year.
The cost of putting on the annual three-day festival is included in WeWork's ”sales and marketing" budget, which stood at $143m in 2017, it said. (That's despite the fact that this is by no-means a free shindig. Full-price tickets were £249, Property Week tells us, and the members' rate only £100 less than that. So it seems like Lorde and Bastille weren't playing simply because they were feeling the gratitude and togetherness.)
They might not have three bond ratings any more, but these guys have bigger fish to fry! They want to solve orphans! Thank goodness they have women around to help them manifest their callings in life. And thank the heavens that the culture of high-growth tech does not lend itself to cultish tendencies -- such as secretive sex parties , microdosing LSD and doxxing critics .
Related links: WeWork and the vanishing bond rating - FT Alphaville WeWork bondholders have no claim on its Asian business - FT Alphaville WeWork's second act - FT Alphaville WeWork debt and summer camp - FT Alphaville