Marty de Beer

Nine minutes after Adam Neumann stepped down as WeWork's CEO, his bank emailed him. He had 15 days to repay about $450 million, with interest compounding daily. In January 2019 SoftBank had valued WeWork at $47 billion. Then the IPO filing went public. It lost $1.9 billion in 2018, and it was signing long leases on whole buildings while renting desks month to month. Investors walked. By September the IPO was dead and he was out. His fortune was WeWork stock. He had borrowed against it, and the loans had a clause: if he lost control of the company, they were in default. Pay in 15 days, or the bank takes the shares. He had the shares and no cash. A few nights later he woke up crying next to his wife, Rebekah. It was the first time she had ever seen him cry. "We lost everything." "What do you mean everything?" "Everything." She reminded him of the $100 million they had agreed to put in her name, just in case. He had never done it. And the personal guarantee they had agreed he would never sign. He had signed it. She didn't blame him. "Hm, okay, this is a surprise." Her mother owned a house upstate, bought 30 years earlier, no mortgage. "Let's go live with my mom. Take a few months. If you want to go back into business, I know you'll be successful. And if you don't, we'll move to Costa Rica." Then: "When I met you, you were broke. I think you're much more sexy when you're broke." He smiled. Two broken promises, a $450 million hole, and she answered with a plan and a joke. That is what a partner looks like on the worst night. SoftBank paid off the banks and took control. In 2022 Andreessen Horowitz put $350 million into his next company. His rule now: "Choose your partner for the day something like that happens, not for any other day."