Adam Neumann is the co-founder and former CEO of WeWork, which once aimed to revolutionise people’s way of working globally. However, the office-sharing company recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, marking a significant downfall.

Here’s everything you need to know about Adam Neumann, the billionaire who continued to get wealthy while his company was making losses. 

Adam Neumann’s Early Life & Education 

Born in southern Israel to medical student parents, Adam Neumann moved to New York after a stint in the Israeli Navy to pursue his dream of becoming an entrepreneur at the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College. 

His first business was Krawlers, a company which manufactured and sold baby clothes. However, he turned his attention to real estate after realising that the company was not turning into a multi-million dollar business. 

The Rise & Fall of Adam Neumann at WeWork

Adam Neumann founded WeWork in 2010 during the financial crash when scores of commercial properties in New York lay empty. He grabbed office space cheaply and used it to build co-working spaces. 

The business grew swiftly, and within a few years, WeWork established hundreds of sites in over two dozen countries. However, WeWork’s rapid growth could not make a profit for the company. Despite that, Adam Neumann secured plenty of money from Silicon Valley to keep the company going. 

He had massive ambitions for WeWork, including eradicating world hunger. However, his dreams were not limited to his company. He was a high-flying executive who boasted about his goal to become the first trillionaire and the president of the world.

When the Japanese investment giant handed Neumann billions of dollars in funding, WeWork became one of the most valuable private companies in the world, with a valuation of $47 billion. 

The next step was to make the company public. That’s when WeWork’s IPO prospectus document revealed that Neumann, now a billionaire, borrowed hundreds of millions of dollars to fund his lavish lifestyles and secured debt against the value of company shares.

After the Wall Street Journal published details of Neumann’s fondness of private jets and marijuana, the investors wanted him out. In 2019, Neumann quit reluctantly.

Adam Neumann’s Net Worth

Forbes’ latest estimates say that Adam Neumann is worth $2.2 billion. In 2019, Neumann peaked at $4.1 billion before he quit WeWork.