... a juicy guided tour through the highly leveraged, not-quite-rags-to-billion-dollar-parachute saga of WeWork and its co-founder Adam Neumann ... separates itself from Billion Dollar Loser by quickly passing over Neumann’s upbringing and experiences on kibbutzim and in the Israeli military, as well as the origins and earliest days of WeWork...Instead, the book saves its firepower for the cataclysmic combination of Neumann’s gift for salesmanship, addiction to fund-raising and focus on his personal wealth ... Brown and Farrell show an agility for explaining key business dynamics that are crucial both to understanding specific moments in WeWork’s trajectory, and also to grasping the role of public and private investors in the company’s successes and failures. They do so without slowing down the narrative or overdoing it such that readers well versed in business might find it boring or pedantic ... a book that calls for keeping a pen handy so you can write in the margins, giving the Greek chorus in your head a place to pop off ... also very funny, with Brown and Farrell employing wry juxtaposition and understatement to enjoyable effect ... The narrative is written straight through, with Brown and Farrell rarely breaking in to attribute their reporting to specific sources. Instead, that information is packed into extensive notes at the end of the book. It may make the nearly 400 pages brisker to read for some, but I was frequently toggling back and forth to try to surmise how the authors knew what they were telling me .... coming out months after other storytellers have framed the WeWork saga with their own focuses and flourishes. But Brown and Farrell’s book may be the most perfectly timed. As much of the white-collar work force enjoys (or tolerates) its final weeks of working from home, we (I think I’m allowed to use 'we' in this context without paying anyone) are preparing to re-engage with our crumbs-in-the-keyboard cubicle culture.

... the real meat of The Cult Of We, and what sets it apart from previous recitations of this story, is the skill and clarity with which Brown and Farrell describe the economic and financial environment that made WeWork’s absurd peak valuation of $47 billion possible in the first place ... Brown and Farrell’s big-picture view charting the arc of the company serves them well but lost is any real impression of what it might have been like to work there, especially at a level lower than an executive. Some examples, like a lament that high-ranking officials sometimes had to fly coach, elicit scoffs. The glimpses one gets of those below the C-suite, including a manager who was fired because they left one of WeWork’s mandatory hard-charging festivals early, suggest a disturbing situation, but The Cult Of We only scratches the surface ... Still, Brown and Farrell’s book provides essential insight into the opaque mechanics of how a private company builds astronomical valuation, and the twisted feedback loop that motivates people not to solve obvious problems. There is little indication that any powerful players have actually learned their lesson here, but at least we’re now better equipped to understand their mistakes.

I had wondered whether another book could bring much fresh insight into one of the most scrutinised CEOs of recent years — yet Brown and Farrell have unearthed dozens of new tales, adding colour to a portrait whose outlines are already well known ... The hubris and excess that The Cult of We cast as a parable of the 21st-century economy may already look like relics of a pre-pandemic world. Yet as we watch investors pump up meme stocks and special purpose acquisition companies (including one via which WeWork now plans to go public at a $9bn valuation), perhaps the lesson is that the line between those pursuing a world-changing dream and those hustling to sell a tall tale has always been vanishingly thin.

... absorbing ... The Cult of We is both a ticktock of Neumann’s self-immolation and a primer on the ways and mores of a start-up culture populated by visionaries, grifters and moneymen ... Although Brown and Farrell tell the tale of WeWork with great understatement—they mostly try to stay out of its way—they are merciless in their depiction of Neumann as a figure of endless hubris and cartoonish whims ... The Cult of We is novelistic in detail and often thrilling, though its ending is never in doubt: It’s like watching a car careening toward a wall at 90 miles an hour ... Neumann isn’t enigmatic, he’s just awful in a way that is unfailingly interesting but never surprising—charismatic White men with good hair have always been able to get away with a lot.

... brightly written ... Business junkies will enjoy the details on deal-making that lace these pages. Most readers will be left incredulous at the unmitigated gall and greed that drove all the major players ... A revealing, highly readable account of megalomania run amok.

Brown and Farrell rightly credit WeWork with tapping into a younger, urban demographic ... Brown and Farrell call the WeWork story 'a vital parable of the twenty-first-century economy.' But what is the WeWork story? The sheer loss of shareholder value would seem to make this one of the big business stories of our time. It has the trappings of a corporate thriller: oodles of cash, epic dysfunction, and a swift reckoning for the cult leader. But there’s something slippery and lesson-defying about it ... as Brown and Farrell note, the markets have short memories.

While not quite a Theranos-level scam, readers will be fascinated to learn what Neumann tried to—and did—get away with in the name of his vision for WeWork.

Brown and Farrell write in sharp prose as they cover drug-fueled private jet flights, financial shenanigans, and a botched IPO, enlivening what could have been a dry postmortem of a failed startup. A delicious chronicle of hubris and misjudgment, this will hit the spot for fans of business tales that walk on the wild side.

The breathless narrative, propelled by diligent reporting, chronicles the startup’s rapid expansion worldwide, eventually becoming the most valuable startup in the country ... Drawing from interviews with former WeWork and SoftBank staff, rivals, friends, and family members, Brown and Farrell vividly piece together the details of how Neumann persuaded backers to invest in his company with minimal oversight while those same venture capitalists also believed WeWork was a remunerative tech firm rather than the perilous real estate company it truly was ... A rousing exposé of extreme financial greed and yet another example of modern corporate hubris.