Adam Neumann

From early ventures to WeWork

Neumann was raised partly on a kibbutz in Israel and moved to New York in 2001. Before WeWork, he pursued several small businesses, including a children's clothing venture, while studying at Baruch College and looking for a larger entrepreneurial opportunity. ^[1]

He met architect Miguel McKelvey and the pair first built Green Desk, a shared-workspace business in Brooklyn. After selling that venture, they launched WeWork in 2010 around flexible office space, community branding and long-term leases on buildings that were subdivided for members. ^[1][2]

WeWork raised billions of dollars and reached a private valuation of $47 billion before governance concerns and heavy losses derailed its 2019 IPO. Neumann resigned as chief executive, but retained substantial wealth through earlier share sales, settlement arrangements and later investments, making his fortune founder-created rather than inherited. ^[1][2]

The $47 billion peak valuation described WeWork as a company, not Neumann's personal net worth. His wealth depended on the shares he owned, liquidity he had already taken and later settlement economics, so the company's headline valuation and the amount personally attributable to him must be kept separate. ^[1][2]