Billion Dollar Loser
How a prodigy of business ruined his multi-billion start-up and why the world’s top investors fell for his fantasies
This is the fourth episode of a series of personal book reviews. Please follow me if you enjoyed it and want to read my next stories, feel free to leave your own comments, or contact me if you would like me to write a personal analysis of one of your favorite literary pieces !
Disclaimer : All opinions expressed here are my own and do not necessarily reflect a general truth nor the opinions of anyone else.
Content : 8/10 |
This book is as much as a multi-characters biography as a historical study of a very particular time, the 2010’s : in the finance universe, the post-recession decade has been the culmination of the greatest excesses for venture-capital funds eager for 20-folds returns on investment and young start-up founders promising a fantastic era of technology-driven industry where millions turn into billions in just a snap of fingers.
Investors want b’s, baby !
The Epic Rise and Spectacular Fall of Adam Neumann and WeWork is nothing less than the incredible story of charismatic leaders pushing fragile ideas on the frontscene, carburating with seduction, empty words and billions of venture-capital funding. There have been thousands of stories of spectacular failures, as well as a few memorable successes by some visionaries — from Uber to Airbnb, including Tesla or Amazon. Surprisingly enough, history remembers the losers as well as the winners, but investors seemed to only bear in mind the front-runners success stories.
Reeves Wiedeman has produced an excellent work at sketching the whole background of that universe, the very peculiar spirit impregnating that decade, from investors deterred by near-zero interest rates, desperately looking for the next Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos all around the Silicon Valley, full of cash and eager to pour billions into the innovative business of a young technology visionary promising to disrupt the market.
The billions of dollars showering young technology entrepreneurs have made more than one head spin. However, the more cash you have, the quicker you tend to burn it, and the higher the fall is once investors start getting cold-feet.
As Warren Buffet puts it :
Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.
Even more than the story of a business failure, what made me enjoy the reading so much is the incredibly varied and well-sketched personnalities and psychologies you meet alongside Adam’s. He is one of a kind, for sure, and WeWork would neither have reached such expansion nor experienced such a terrible downturn, had Adam not been in command. However, this is also the story of others — others who insufflated in him his empty, meaningless, bombastic ideas about raising the world’s consciousness — others who believed him — others who grew disillusioned and left.
This book is a must-read for those interested in the finance or entrepreneurial universe. However, it is also quite instructive as a reflection on humankind, on how people get corrupted by big money, on naivety and blindness.
Form : 8/10 |
I’m not used to non-fiction books, neither reading nor reviewing them. Generally speaking, I don’t like them — I often find that they are nothing more than a podium from which an arrogant Mr. Know-It-All assents truths as if they were God’s words. I always prefer getting involved with a character, accompanying him/her alongside the story — I like when the narrator disappears from the landscape.
I suppose the main reason why I enjoyed Billion Dollar Loser so much was primarily that it is a non-assertive, non-presemptuous, non-lecturous, novel-like story. Reeves Wiedeman does not try to be didactic, he does not take the reader by the hand and does not try to instill admonitions and moral lessons in every paragraph. He simply tells the story as it is, digging deep to understand the innermost springs of the alliances, the subtle influences exerted on both sides, the deep motivations of each act.
It is a very pleasant reading, and the author manages to create a thrilling rhythm that keeps the reader interested right up to the last pages. Reading this book felt a lot like watching The Big Short, a movie I highly recommend to anyone interested in the finance universe.
Impact : 8/10 |
This book is a high-quality inquiry of one of the most memorable flops of the last decade. At the time we are living in, I am convinced it should be deemed an essential reading : economic depressions are always a time for old branches to die and for new sprouts to emerge. The coronavirus crisis has been a heavy blow on the past ten years’ economic achievements : from WeWork to Airbnb, including Uber, all superheroes of the startup universe have been punched in the face by global lockdowns and travel restrictions.
As public policies aim at spending shockingly huge packages on economic recovery, this is definitely a time for financial investors to learn from their past ten years’ failures, and maybe think twice before pouring insane amounts of cash into idealistic young hands dreaming of rebuilding the world’s consciousness, whatever that even means.
Global : 8/10 |
I have to admit that, for someone having no interest at all for the kind of universe the book is evolving around, it is not a very appealing reading. However, you shall not be deceived. I think everyone would take something out of it — either humility, reflection on our peers and ourselves, or a deeper knowledge and more informed opinion of today’s business world — at least, the big players’ world.
