Adam Neumann, CEO of WeWork.
Eduardo Munoz | Reuters
Venture capital agency Andreessen Horowitz announced Monday that it plans to invest in Adam Neumann’s new residential real estate company known as Flow.
Neumann is the founder and former CEO of the coworking area company WeWork, however he left in 2019 after the company botched its plans to go public. The company’s IPO submitting confirmed massive losses, a complicated corporate structure, and anomalies such because the company paying Neumann almost $6 million to purchase the trademark to “We” prior to a company title change. (Neumann later returned the cash.) Media reviews across the similar time described a culture of excess, and Neumann ultimately resigned, strolling away with a massive payout.
Andreessen Horowitz stated in a weblog publish that Neumann’s efforts to redesign the workplace expertise at WeWork are “typically below appreciated” and that the agency loves “seeing repeat-founders construct on previous successes by rising from classes discovered.”
Flow’s web site does not supply many particulars on the company however says it is anticipated to launch in 2023. According to The New York Times, Flow is “successfully a service that landlords can group up with for his or her properties, considerably comparable to the best way an proprietor of a resort may contract with a branded resort chain to function the property.” The New York Times stated Andreesen Horowitz invested about $350 million in Flow.
Andreesen Horowitz means that Flow might allow a new method for individuals to buy their residing area, although it is unclear if that is by way of a rent-to-own mannequin. “In a world the place restricted entry to dwelling possession continues to be a driving pressure behind inequality and anxiousness, giving renters a way of safety, neighborhood, and real possession has transformative energy for our society,” Andreessen Horowitz co-founder and basic accomplice Marc Andreessen wrote in a weblog publish.
“We suppose it’s pure that for his first enterprise since WeWork, Adam returns to the theme of connecting individuals by way of remodeling their bodily areas and constructing communities the place individuals spend probably the most time: their houses.”
“We are thrilled by the scope and aspiration of this undertaking,” Andreessen stated. “It is just not missing in imaginative and prescient or ambition, however solely tasks with such lofty targets have an opportunity at altering the world.”