WeWork Inc.
Flexible Office SpaceFounded 2010- Updated June 2026
Reviewed by Swet Parvadiya
Last reviewed: June 2026
CorpDigest
WeWork Inc.
Company History
Founded 2010 in New York, New York
Last reviewed: 2026-06-06 · By Swet Parvadiya
Adam Neumann and Miguel McKelvey opened the first WeWork location in SoHo, Manhattan in 2010. The concept — shared office space sold through memberships with a community angle — wasn't new. Executive suites and business centers had existed for decades. What WeWork did differently was the presentation: instead of sterile executive suite aesthetics, WeWork locations used exposed brick, craft beer taps, curated playlists, and language about community, collaboration, and belonging.
The pitch worked in 2010's post-financial-crisis environment, when startups were proliferating and office leases were a poor fit for companies that might not exist in two years. The membership model gave WeWork's users flexibility that traditional leases couldn't offer. The premium over raw office space was justified, at least for some users, by the flexibility value and the amenity package.
SoftBank's Vision Fund investment in 2017 changed the company's trajectory by providing capital at a scale that demanded global expansion. Neumann took the money and moved aggressively — opening locations in every major city, acquiring meeting app Meetup and marketing analytics company Conductor, and building out WeWork-branded residential and education products. The capital funded growth; the growth funded a higher valuation; the higher valuation justified more capital.
The 2019 IPO attempt collapsed after the S-1 filed in August disclosed losses of $1.9 billion in 2018 and a governance structure that gave Neumann extraordinary control. Institutional investors, reading the actual document, declined to participate at any remotely comparable valuation. Neumann departed in September 2019. SoftBank committed $9.5 billion in rescue financing in 2020, which was consumed by ongoing rent obligations before the company filed for bankruptcy three years later.
Adam Neumann, born in 1979 in Israel, is an Israeli-American businessman who co-founded WeWork and served as its CEO until his ousting in 2019. Neumann served in the Israeli military before moving to the United States, where he pursued various business ventures and eventually crossed paths with Miguel McKelvey in the Brooklyn coworking scene. Neumann's charisma, boundless energy, and visionary leadership were instrumental in the early growth of WeWork, as he personally cultivated the company's cult-like community and secured the massive venture capital funding that fueled its global expansion. However, his tenure was also marked by increasingly erratic behavior, severe corporate governance issues, and controversial financial transactions, including the sale of his personal trademark for the word 'We' to the company for $5.9 million. The disastrous 2019 IPO filing exposed the depth of these governance problems and the fundamental flaws in WeWork's unit economics, leading to a massive revolt by investors and Neumann's forced resignation. Neumann walked away from the company with a bailout package worth nearly $1.7 billion, a move that was widely condemned by the public and the financial community. Despite his departure, Neumann's impact on the commercial real estate industry is undeniable; he fundamentally changed the way companies think about office space and pioneered the flexible office model that continues to shape the market today.
Miguel McKelvey, born in 1974 in Oregon, is an American architect and entrepreneur who co-founded WeWork with Adam Neumann. McKelvey studied architecture and was deeply influenced by the concept of how physical spaces can influence human behavior and interaction. Before co-founding WeWork, McKelvey was involved in the early coworking movement, launching Green Desk, an eco-friendly shared workspace in Brooklyn, which served as the direct precursor to WeWork. McKelvey's role in the company was primarily focused on the physical design and the community culture; he was responsible for the iconic, industrial-chic aesthetic of the WeWork locations, featuring exposed brick, glass-walled conference rooms, and communal tables that became the hallmark of the brand. McKelvey was also deeply involved in the curation of the community, personally interviewing potential members and organizing the events that fostered the collaborative atmosphere. As the company grew and professionalized, McKelvey's influence waned, and he eventually stepped down from his role as Chief Culture Officer in 2018, prior to the company's disastrous IPO attempt. McKelvey's contribution to WeWork was foundational; his design philosophy and community-focused approach created the physical product that the company sold, and his early partnership with Neumann provided the creative spark that launched the flexible office revolution.
Rebekah Neumann, born in 1981, is an American entrepreneur who co-founded WeWork with her husband, Adam Neumann. Rebekah was deeply involved in the early days of the company, helping to build the community, organize events, and manage the operations of the first locations. She was a key part of the founding team that established the unique, cult-like culture of WeWork, and her influence was felt in the company's focus on wellness, sustainability, and social impact. However, as the company grew and the scrutiny intensified, Rebekah's role became increasingly controversial. She was appointed as the Chief Brand and Impact Officer, a position that critics argued was created to justify her substantial compensation and influence over the company's direction. During the 2019 IPO process, it was revealed that Rebekah had received millions of dollars in stock and compensation, and that she had been involved in several controversial transactions, including the lease of a building to WeWork that she and Adam had previously owned. Following Adam's ousting, Rebekah also left the company, walking away with a substantial financial settlement. Despite the controversies, Rebekah's early contributions to the culture and community of WeWork were instrumental in the company's initial success and its ability to attract a loyal following of members and employees.
Adam Neumann, Rebekah Neumann, and Miguel McKelvey founded WeWork in 2010, launching their first location in a dilapidated warehouse in SoHo, Manhattan, and pioneering the modern, community-focused coworking model.
WeWork raised a $17 million Series A investment led by Benchmark Capital, valuing the company at over $100 million and providing the capital necessary to accelerate its expansion beyond Brooklyn and into prime Manhattan locations.
WeWork reached a $10 billion valuation in 2015 following a massive funding round, cementing its status as one of the most valuable private companies in the world and fueling its aggressive global expansion into Europe and Asia.
SoftBank's Vision Fund led a $4.4 billion investment in WeWork in 2017, valuing the company at $20 billion and providing the massive war chest that allowed Adam Neumann to accelerate the company's breakneck global expansion.
In early 2019, reports emerged that SoftBank and JPMorgan were considering a tender offer that would value WeWork at $47 billion, but the subsequent S-1 filing in August revealed massive losses and governance issues, leading to the cancellation of the IPO and a catastrophic collapse in the company's valuation.
Following the disastrous IPO attempt and a massive revolt by investors, Adam Neumann was forced to step down as CEO in September 2019, receiving a controversial $1.7 billion exit package that included a $500 million credit line from the company.
In 2020, SoftBank executed a $9.5 billion bailout of WeWork, purchasing a significant portion of the company's outstanding debt and equity, and launching a tender offer for remaining shares that was later partially retracted following legal disputes, but ultimately stabilizing the company's immediate liquidity crisis.
The 2020 global pandemic triggered a mass shift to remote work, causing a catastrophic decline in demand for dense, shared office environments and exposing the fatal structural flaws in WeWork's long-term lease arbitrage business model.
In 2021, WeWork merged with the SPAC BowX Acquisition, bringing the company back to the public markets with a valuation of $9 billion and providing a $1.3 billion cash infusion intended to stabilize the balance sheet and fund the post-pandemic recovery.
On November 6, 2023, unable to negotiate consensual lease modifications with its landlords and facing a severe liquidity crisis, WeWork filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, announcing its intention to reject approximately $19 billion in future lease obligations.
On June 11, 2024, WeWork officially emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy as a privately held entity, with its pre-petition equity holders completely wiped out and ownership transferred to a consortium of creditors, landlords, and real estate operators including Yardi Systems.
WeWork acquired Meetup, the platform for organizing in-person community gatherings and interest groups, as part of Adam Neumann vision of WeWork as a community company that went beyond office space. Neumann believed Meetup aligned with WeWork mission of building community and human connection.
WeWork acquired Conductor, a content marketing and SEO platform software company, as part of Adam Neumann vision of WeWork expanding into software and services beyond physical real estate. The acquisition represented WeWork attempt to build technology revenue that could command higher valuation multiples than real estate leasing.
WeWork acquired SpaceIQ, workplace management software that helps companies optimize their office space utilization, occupancy, and desk booking. The acquisition aligned more directly with WeWork core business by adding software that could be sold to corporate tenants alongside flexible workspace.
WeWork opened its first location at 154 Grand Street in SoHo Manhattan in April 2010, after co-founders Adam Neumann, Miguel McKelvey and Rebekah Neumann signed a single-floor lease that they subdivided into dozens of small private offices and a shared lounge. The trio had piloted the concept earlier through GreenDesk, a green-themed co-working space in Brooklyn that Neumann and McKelvey launched in 2008 and sold in 2010 to the building's landlord Joshua Guttman, using the proceeds to seed WeWork. The founding pitch combined three observations sharpened by the 2008 financial crisis: small businesses and freelancers needed Class A office space without long leases, landlords were holding empty floors after Lehman, and a millennial design vocabulary of reclaimed wood, glass walls, and free beer would let the operator charge per-desk premiums above the underlying square-foot economics. Grand Street filled within months and the founders quickly added a second location at 175 Varick Street in West Village. Early backers Joel Schreiber, who paid $15 million for a third of the company in 2010, and Mortimer Zuckerman established the template of selling equity to real estate insiders. By the end of 2012 WeWork operated eight locations in three US cities, and the name had become shorthand for a particular New York creative-class workplace aesthetic that would soon be exported globally.
GreenDesk was the proof-of-concept business that Adam Neumann and Miguel McKelvey ran together in Brooklyn between 2008 and 2010, and it functioned as the direct prototype for WeWork. The two had met in 2007 when Neumann, who was running a baby clothing business called Krawlers from a building owned by landlord Joshua Guttman, struck up a friendship with McKelvey, an Oregon-born architect working in the same building. Guttman agreed to let them sublease a floor at 68 Jay Street in Dumbo, where they built out partitioned offices marketed as eco-friendly co-working with recycled furniture, low-VOC paint and shared printing on recycled paper. GreenDesk reached profitability within months because the founders simply charged per desk above their head-lease cost, the same arbitrage that would later define WeWork at scale. In 2010, with the recession deepening and Guttman wanting to consolidate, the founders sold their stake in GreenDesk back to the landlord for roughly $3 million. They walked away with capital and an operational playbook covering layout density, amenity calibration and member acquisition, and they immediately rolled the proceeds into the Grand Street lease that became the first WeWork. McKelvey often credited the experience with teaching them that the green-themed marketing was secondary; what mattered was community, design polish and short-term flexibility. GreenDesk itself still operates under the Guttman family ownership and remains a niche Brooklyn co-working brand.
WeWork's expansion accelerated in four distinct phases between 2010 and the 2019 peak. The 2010 to 2013 phase covered the United States build-out, opening locations in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston and Washington, reaching roughly 20 locations by the end of 2013 funded by Benchmark Capital's $17 million Series A at a $97 million valuation. The 2014 to 2016 phase added international footprint starting with London in 2014, then Tel Aviv, Amsterdam and Berlin, supported by JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs financing alongside Fidelity and T. Rowe Price growth rounds that valued the company at $5 billion by mid-2015 and $10 billion by mid-2016. The 2017 to 2018 phase was the SoftBank-fueled hypergrowth period after Masayoshi Son's initial $4.4 billion Vision Fund commitment in August 2017, doubling locations annually into India, China, Japan, Korea, Australia and across Latin America through Brazil and Mexico. By August 2019, on the eve of the failed initial public offering, WeWork operated 528 locations across 111 cities in 29 countries with 527,000 memberships. Peak footprint reached roughly 779 locations in late 2019. Post-bankruptcy the company has consolidated to about 600 locations after rejecting or renegotiating leases under Chapter 11. The expansion pace at peak was opening one new location every three days for sustained quarters.
WeWork sold itself between roughly 2014 and 2019 as a quasi-spiritual movement rather than a real estate business, branding the customer base as the We Generation and positioning Adam Neumann as a generational prophet of work-life integration. Internal documents and the S-1 filing for the failed September 2019 initial public offering referenced raising the consciousness of the world as a stated mission. Cultural artifacts of the era included Summer Camp, an annual employee festival held at Crockett Manor in the English countryside and later at Eastnor Castle, featuring bands such as Lorde and the Weeknd hired for thousands of employees, free alcohol distributed by the cooler, and motivational speeches by Neumann about the elevation of human potential. The We Holdings parent rebrand of January 2019 was paired with a stated ambition to extend beyond office space into WeLive, an apartment-rental concept, WeGrow, a private elementary school operated by Rebekah Neumann at a Chelsea location, and Rise by We, a gym franchise. The branding extended to mandatory hugs at member onboarding, mandatory references to community as the corporate value, and a ban on meat in company-expensed meals starting in 2018, framed as an ethical commitment. The cultural excess later figured prominently in The Cult of We by Eliot Brown and Maureen Farrell, the 2021 book that became the definitive narrative of the company's overreach.
WeWork filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the District of New Jersey on November 6, 2023, listing $18.7 billion of debt against $15.1 billion of assets, the largest commercial real estate bankruptcy of the post-pandemic period. The filing followed three years of liquidity erosion despite Sandeep Mathrani's operational turnaround, because the company could not generate sufficient operating cash to service $13 billion of total lease obligations on a portfolio with declining occupancy after remote work permanence reduced enterprise demand. The Chapter 11 plan permitted the debtor to reject roughly 150 office leases and renegotiate roughly 150 more, cutting projected rent obligations by more than $12 billion over remaining lease terms. The plan also wiped out roughly $4 billion of equity and unsecured debt held by SoftBank, BlackRock and other holders. Yardi Systems, the Santa Barbara-based property management software company controlled by Anant Yardi, led the exit financing with $337 million in new capital and emerged as the majority owner alongside Cupar Grimmond and several distressed-debt funds. WeWork formally emerged from Chapter 11 on June 11, 2024, as a private company with the equity ledger reset and the lease portfolio rationalized to roughly 600 locations. John Santora was installed as chief executive on June 14, 2024, replacing interim chief executive David Tolley who had steered the bankruptcy process from October 2023 onward.