Adam Neumann bankrolls his new startup, companies implement in-office policies and the enigma of Andrew Tate
Stretch Four Insights Volume 34
Future gives me one-on-one training, feedback, and recommendations, and Sarah, my trainer, is usually the first person who reaches out to me in the morning to let me know what’s on tap at the gym. She sent me the screenshot below to kick off the week. She also adjusted my workout regime as I am focused on preparing for a half marathon sometime in 2023. So now, we are incorporating more running into my workouts. I am able to get the workouts in on my time and share videos, ask questions, and get feedback from my trainer. I can also set goals for myself. I am all in on losing the 10-15 pounds I have gained since becoming a dad so my workouts focus on weights and cardio.
Check out Future for 50% off for the first three months using our exclusive link and let me know what you think.
Happy Saturday,
I have taken a few weeks off from the weekly recaps, but we are back this week.
It’s the end of August and Whitney and I celebrate birthdays two days apart. We are looking forward to a special dinner at Californos on Tuesday this week. Then on my birthday, I head off to the Fintech DevCon Conference followed by a few days in Houston with some old college friends.
This week was power packed with lots of news, I have been taking a break from listening to podcasts this month and switching up most of my content consumption to Audible but there were a few topics I have to highlight.
Adam Neumann raises $350M from Andreessen Horowitz and everybody is surprised.
How are companies becoming more aggressive about getting their employees back in-office
The Andrew Tate Conundrum
Let’s dive in.
The Adam Neumann Fundraising Machine
After a phenomenal job by Jared Leto in the WeCrashed Series on Apple T.V., I went down a rabbit hole of the Adam Neumann story. It is fairly fascinating to read about his real life and watch his only public interview since the WeWork controversy. Well, this week he came back with a splash to the tune of $350M raised from none other than Andreessen Horowitz. While there are several opinions on Adam, one thing is clear he gets the fundraising thing. As a fellow founder, who has scraped and clawed to raise even nominal amounts of venture capital in the past five years there is no way I cannot find what he has been able to do fascinating. When you remove all the jazz of fundraising it is quite hard to get anyone to give you money for anything. This announcement Monday sparked lots of conversation on how it happened, why it happened, and what the implications are for people of color who seemingly are raising fewer dollars of venture capital than ever before.
It was interesting to hear this take from a Benchmark partner, Eric Vishria. Benchmark led WeWork’s Series A in 2012. In 2019, in a secondary round, they exited to the tune of 40X in return on their original investment. Additionally, Neumann referenced anyone who was in WeWork before as an employee in 2015. While I do not know anyone at Benchmark, I think this is more a dig on A16Z for putting in $350M into a newco started by Neumann. Benchmark is the best early-stage investor in the valley as they write $5-15 million checks into early-stage companies. It seems they are implying that Andreessen cannot be looking for venture-type returns on a $350 million investment in this company.
This is maybe my favorite tweet regarding the announcement. So many founders and people of color were upset that Adam gets another shot. Yes, he is a white Jewish guy that is raising more in a round than likely all black founders have raised this quarter, but in some ways, this should be expected. Why is anyone surprised? Especially considering A16Z did the deal and Marc Andreeson is taking a board seat. I do not find it at all odd, Andreessen to me is constantly reaching with many of their investments. So I am not surprised that they took the bait and invested their largest check ever into Neumann.
How do companies actually feel about employees going back to work?
I personally have been going back to the office since April, my particular situation is unique in that I had my son in March, and we have a two-bedroom two-bathroom condo and it made sense to go into a WeWork (ironically). It was a good decision for me, working from home is respectable but it is not for me. This week The Information did a piece on how companies are starting to implement five-day in-office work weeks. I think it is intriguing but I completely get the reason companies like Merge, OpenStore, and others are mandating in-office policies while others are completely remote. This comes a few weeks after Malcolm Gladwell went on a rant destroying the WFH communities.
The Andrew Tate Conundrum
Yesterday, internet sensation Andrew Tate was officially de-platformed from Facebook and Instagram. While it comes as no surprise it is intriguing to see how quickly the internet can take someone from relative obscurity to being the most searched and featured person across the internet. I am a pretty avid YouTube consumer and that is how I was introduced to Tate as he was a guest on multiple podcasts including Full Send (8 million views) and Off the Record with DJ Akademiks. Tate has alarming takes on women, dating, and being single. This is the toxic masculinity that I think is part art because it has shock value, it is entertaining to most men between the ages of 20-45, and part serious but supposedly cancel culture has had enough. What is interesting about these types of “celebrities” is how they monetize in other areas. I did a search of Tate’s website and he got 3.5 million visits in June 2022. So one thing is clear, the guy is making a lot of money selling programming, premium content, and other things directly through his website. The most likely case is that his true fans, whoever they may be, will be even more loyal to him and he will be able to spread his proverbial gospel even more.
What’s Next
Next up for me is a birthday week that I will spend in Denver, Colorado for the Fintech Devcon Annual Conference & meeting with a few prospects and clients. Then I am heading to Houston for a guy’s weekend with some old college buddies.
This Fall will include a bit of travel for work as currently I have five events to attend through October. I will plan to talk more candidly here about these events. I think they are critical depending on your business as an entrepreneur but also
Long Four #3 will be a deep dive on 1:1 apps I am using to help with alcohol and public speaking and brief interviews with two founders of the companies.
Back to the trenches.