$350M Investment In Disgraced WeWork Founder Stirs Controversy

MENLO PARK, CA — A disgraced entrepreneur blamed for one of most spectacular business failures in years has the backing of a Menlo Park venture capital titan for his latest venture, and not everyone in Silicon Valley likes it.

Andreessen Horowitz cofounder Marc Andreessen said his firm has sunk $350 million into Flow, a real estate firm led by former WeWork cofounder and CEO Adam Neumann.

The deal was first reported by The New York Times.

Andreessen described Neumann as a "visionary leader.”

WeWork took a $38 billion haircut under Neumann’s leadership before he left the commercial real estate company in 2019, CNBC reports.

Neumann’s latest venture will target millennial renters.

Neumann has purchased more than 3,000 apartment units, mostly in the South, according to the Times report, which said Flow “aims to rethink the rental housing market by creating a branded product with consistent service and community features.”

The staggering investment in Neumann’s company has turned heads in venture capital circles.

The founder and managing director of Graham & Walker, a firm that invests mostly in firms founded by women, described the deal as a “gut punch.”

"My immediate reaction was, 'Man, I wish women had the same opportunity to fail up as spectacularly as Adam Neumann has,'" Leslie Feinzaig told the BBC.

A Business Insider article that ran under the headline “Silicon Valley handing $350 million to WeWork founder Adam Neumann is sign of VC apocalypse” quotes a founder with ties to the startup funding saying: "On the one hand, it is comforting to know that if you f*** up in the biggest ways you can be redeemed if you are a white dude who is also incredibly wealthy. On the other hand, I am not a white dude with existing wealth and connections, so I am saddened."