Tesla’s CEO would not cover what he thinks of Flow, Adam Neumann’s new firm. It might be summed up in a single phrase: bull.
The enterprise world is stuffed with second possibilities.
There are an increasing number of founders who failed, however to whom traders gave a second likelihood. The concept, say second likelihood supporters, is that founders should be inspired to fail, restart, fail once more, restart, and ultimately succeed.
The instance of a second likelihood that paid off large time is Henry Ford, who had two bankruptcies earlier than breaking via.
In 1901, Detroit Automobile Company, the corporate based by Ford two years earlier, needed to file for chapter due to poor high quality and excessive costs of its autos.
Henry Ford
Ford confronted a second chapter in 1903 when he based the Ford Motor Company. Yielding to strain from his 12 associates and monetary backers who had granted him a capital of $28,000 to launch the corporate, Ford unveiled his first manufacturing mannequin in 1903: the Model A.
But this time, Ford realized that it was not sufficient to create, it was additionally essential to pay the suppliers, if one wished to assemble the vehicles to be delivered to the potential prospects. The prices of creating and producing the Model A had been excessive. In July 1903, after paying his suppliers and never promoting a single automobile, solely $223.65 remained within the coffers of the Ford Motor Company.
The firm obtained an order and a down fee and likewise secured a mortgage from a gaggle of traders. It was then in a position to rebound and have become an enormous success.
The instance of Henry Ford is cited by supporters of second possibilities to startup founders. It is even a pleasure of the American enterprise world, as a result of Ford has reworked our lifestyle due to his sensible and accessible vehicles. He invented trendy, mass-production strategies that grew to become the benchmark for industrial practices in the course of the first half of the twentieth century.
But traders are of the opinion that not all second possibilities finish very nicely. Elon Musk, one of many biggest serial entrepreneurs, believes, for instance, that the second likelihood given to Adam Neumann, the disgraced founding father of WeWork, is a nasty concept.
In a thread on Twitter, a consumer posted a video of what seems to be Neumann explaining the thought behind Flow, his new firm. The former CEO of WeWork accompanies his explanations with massive gestures together with his fingers. It’s onerous to know his logic.
Musk Does Not Buy What Neumann Is Selling
“So number one: management company branded technology first,” Neumann defined within the video. “Number two real estate asset management company, that can buy real estate and asset manage real estate; number three financial services. And the fourth pillar is this mechanism that’s going to take some of the value and share it with the value creators.”
He continued: “And those users are going to start using our financial services. Now the reason they’re going to use the financial services is that payments company that’s charging your rent already has a real relationship with the user. And then, if we are able to take this value-creating mechanisms and share with the residents, a portion of the value, is going to make them feel ownership.”
“If you’re in your apartment building, and you’re a renter and your toilet gets clogged, you call the super. If you’re in your own apartment and you bought it and you own it and your toilet gets clogged, you take the plunger. And it’s the difference from feeling like you own something to just feeling like you’re renting. From being transactional to actually being part of a community.”
Neumann’s monologue seems incomprehensible. For Musk, this all quantities to a form of psychological gymnastic that leads nowhere. He doesn’t hesitate to make use of the eggplant emoji to help his criticism and warning. The eggplant emoji is commonly used on social media to signify a penis.
“Imagine this is your 🍆 … now I will explain with my hands,” Musk commented.
Basically, Musk appears to sum up Neumann’s concept to bullshit, wind.
Neumann made a comeback final August with a brand new start-up: Flow. He had raised $350 million from Venture capital agency Andreessen Horowitz, valuing his new enterprise at $1 billion. This is a file for a primary spherical of funding. The script had a little bit of deja vu. Neumann, a charismatic younger entrepreneur, had already proposed to revolutionize the best way of approaching business actual property, placing sharing on the middle of his idea.
For this, he had benefited from the help of prestigious institutional traders comparable to Softbank (SFBQF) . But the journey changed into a nightmare for traders.
Flow, his new firm, is midway between renting and shopping for housing. It is predicated, like WeWork, on sharing. Neumann had mentioned Flow desires to resolve the housing disaster.
