Hard times.
And have you been following along with the dizzying fall of WeWork’s wonderfully eccentric co-founder and now ex-CEO Adam Neumann? Oooooee. Fast and furious. The Israeli-born entrepreneur was introduced to us almost a year ago by Derek Rielly, who wondered if he wasn’t the “most important man in surfing.” He had developed a warm friendship with Laird Hamilton, investing in his Laird Superfood non-dairy creamer and also threw near fourteen million dollars at Wavegarden.
With a love of surfing and a billions upon billions upon billions of dollars to be collected as part of WeWork’s expected IPO, Mr. Neumann was poised to change the game but then, like that, the wheels fell off and the whole business drove right over a cliff.
Potential investors scurried for the door, the potential IPO date was moved far back, Mr. Neumann was pushed from his CEO role but why? Why the sudden change of heart?
Partially because of Mr. Neumann’s love of surfing, as it turns out.
His investment in Wavegarden was seen as majorly problematic and written down to zero. Likewise a large photo of Mr. Neumann surfing that he had hung in WeWork’s headquarters.
So problematic, in fact, that august news source BuzzFeed listed it as one of the seven reasons for WeWork’s sudden demise and let us read briefly:
6. That time he invested $13.8 million in a wave pool maker, only to write down the value of that investment to zero the following year.
According to the WSJ, Neumann said “surfing creates community, the value he says is central to WeWork.” New York magazine wrote in June, “Until recently, an executive conference room at WeWork headquarters was decorated with a large photograph of Neumann surfing a wave.”
Well that makes me sad that a love of surfing equals an awful investment and sign of imminent, fiery collapsed.
Should we rally around Mr. Neumann? Part of the tribe etc.?
Should we bring him behind the Positive Wall of Noise where there are No Bad Days™ and foam climbs for all?
Please let me know.
dora was right about the kikes…
“surfing creates community” bwaaaaa haaa haaa haaa…… Riiiiiight….
I wonder why the investment had to be completely written off, since Wavegarden is still operational, involved in a bunch of projects, and about to start up a pool in Bristol.
For those that are interested in WeWork here’s a pretty good summary, Neumann sounds like a total self-aggrandizing tool- https://www.businessinsider…
It is operational, but is it profitable, though? Considering the amount of ‘financial engineering’ they did to get that 50B valuation, it wouldn’t surprise me if it’s something similar
It may not be profitable, but its at least solvent and in an expansion phase I guess, so it’s surprising that the investment would be totally written off. There’s probably some details we’re missing, but whatever. If I care at all, it’s because I’m interested in seeing how Wavegarden Cove pans out.
Wavegarden is history like all the other wavefool companies are history because Surf Ranch and KSWCO are to any other wavefool company what the Great Wall of China was to the Mongols.
Instant retirement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_j8W-SDefU
If the guy had half a brain he’d realize the only way to actually create value in WeWork is to create a version of WeWork/WeLive at these pools. Send the Nlanders to an overnight kamp for kooks…
Wow another billionaire/risk taker/successful person for you proles to snipe at from the sidelines?
Is bitchgripe.com on this dude’s payroll now?
Are were going to see a bunch of stories about some Israeli billionaire dude and his chick?
Ha, yes, it was pretty jarring at times! Mellow surf sounding harmony over a wall of feedback and Velvet Underground guitar. I won’t lie, when I saw them I covered my ears more than once between songs waiting for their drum machine to start up so they would start playing again. I wish my ears still worked well enough to get wrecked like that.
As someone who has been in the tech business for years, had exits (IPO’s), and knows many of the major founders, etc….and who also has surfed since a being a kid…I can tell you with utmost confidence that Neumann and his sidekick wife are complete bozo’s and hype-artists without parallel. They will say (and do) ANYTHING to enrich their own position at the expense of everything else. They are charlatans….and so is his supposed link to surfing…a poser.
Voted for Netanyahu – check
Wow did you divine that irony all by yourself?
No help from intern(s) or therapist(s)?
Clever girl: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plzw1NWVYSM
I’ve always thought this would be a great song for someone’s surf video part.
I thought it was young Patti Smith with a time traveling member of The Strokes
He’s 6′ 5″ and Israeli which means he has schwanz for days.
He’s already a billionaire so getting shitcanned from WeWork don’t make no never mind.
These three paragraphs from Wikipedia are revealing.
He is whack enough to run for president:
According to The Wall Street Journal, Neumann chartered a Gulfstream G650 for a trip from the United States to Israel during the summer of 2018. During the flight, Neumann and his friends spent much of the flight smoking marijuana. After the flight landed in Israel, the flight crew found a cereal box stuffed with marijuana and reported it to the jet owner. Fearing a marijuana trafficking incident, the owner of the jet ordered it to return to the US. Neumann and his friends had to find another way to return to New York.[3]
The Wall Street Journal reported that Neumann had aspirations such as living forever, becoming the world’s first trillionaire, expanding WeWork to the planet Mars, becoming Israel’s prime minister, and becoming “president of the world”.[30]
In a September 2019 Vanity Fair article, author Gabriel Sherman found a variety of stories that Neumann invented boasts to others as part of building his brand and reputation. These included claiming that he convinced Rahm Emanuel to run for the presidency of the United States, saying that JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon was Neumanns’ personal banker, and convincing Saudi prince Mohammed bin Salman to improve the standing of women in Saudi Arabia.[31]
Investment bankers thought he was Jesus, then he paddled out at agnostic Wall Street and got fully ragdolled.
He had made so many business promises, getting canned was actually an easy way out for the clown.
Block that metaphor.
gloomy looking scragglepuss, that’s for sure..
I’m pretty happy with the G550. AIn’t no reason for the extended range version. Can’t land at regional airports etc.
Everything in the key of G and A!
Best comment about Neumann and WeWork was from a business professor Scott Galloway:
“ So, the mother of all party crashers took a dump in the We IPO punch bowl. The crasher? Math. The autopsy will show the shelving of this IPO was death by S-1”
(note to Beach Grit folks an s-1 is the pre-IPO prospectus describing the company)
You seem like a nice person.
Hopefully you’re not a millennial drip with tattoos and no clue and all that.
So a message: Get Out Now!!!
You’re wasting your life writing about surfing.
There’s more to life than sarcastic sardonism.
So much more.
And are the Glimmer Twins paying you?
No? Whatever.
They should be, because I know with my own two eyes they get a nice big PayPal every month from WSL.
They probably haven’t let you in on the gag that you are working for a negative shill.
What you think is objective, negative journalism against the WSL and pro surfing and wave pools is actually furthering the cause.
That’s cynicism!
So it’s sarcastic, sardonic cynicism. Triple Crown of no bueno.
But you seem like a nice person, so Get Out Now!
There was a Golden Age of writing about surfing, but that was before your time.
Before you were born, most likely.
Now every nitwit from Coos Bay to Tighnabruaich to Dee Why writes about surfing.
Nothing is special.
It’s a waste of time. Nobody reads anymore. They forgot how.
Join the Peace Corps or something.
Do something meaningful with your life beyond snark.
Saw them shortly after this came out. Great show, enough feedback for a lifetime.
Five years later, saw them in a small bar venue in Honolulu, oddly enough.
Did you miss my advice yesterday? I said I’d be deleting any replies that include the text of others comments.
We got this last week from Matt George, It’s not an email from 1998 and does nothing for the aesthetics of the commentary.
I also feel its a ploy to grab more attention than one needs.
do benny boys deleted messages count in his profile as his comment to upvote count is terrible, with all of his deleted messages not providing the opportunity to be upvoted Im worried his ego will suffer with such poor numbers. I dont know or dislike benny boy but man that guy has some spare time on his hands and some issues. Ben, R U OK?
That was a run-on sentence.
A whopper.
It this doesn’t break KiWi Ni Boarder’s Unwritten Law, perhaps: “Do Benny boys deleted messages count in his profile? His comment to upvote count is terrible. With all of his deleted messages not providing the opportunity to be upvoted I’m worried his ego will suffer with such poor numbers.”
Ben craves negative downvotes on this site.
Upvotes would be death.
I think Daisy Ridley just walked past me.
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain! He’s from New Zealand and he kneeboards: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWyCCJ6B2WE