The Power of We
Episode 7 of WeCrashed begins with an introduction to IPOs. We’re explained the pros and cons with going public on the stock market, which is a huge risk and in doing so, exposes everything for the public to see; the flip side to this is that it can exponentially increase the value of a business. At Google HQ in Silicon Valley, Adam shows up to pitch but things are not looking good. His schematic falls apart, which is a nice allegory for his own company. He’s come to Google for money, trying to convince them that WeWork is a tech company. It’s not, obviously, and Google see through this too, suggesting Adam turn toward an IPO. While this is going on, Rebekah continues her vanity project in Wegrow. She feigns a smile, but has bigger plans for the students. She intends to set the kids up on entrepreneurships, with a really awful slogan “from birth to death” which Rebekah actually really takes to. She wants to nurture their teaching over an extended period of time. However, she’s still lagging behind WeWork which has a far more superior social media presence. She’s incredibly patronizing to the staff, acting snottily at the idea of going on a podcast. At least to begin with anymore. Eventually she succumbs and rambles on about her big vanity project, almost in tears over what this means to her. At the moment, WeWork is burning through 58 million a week and because of this, everyone around Adam encourages him to go public in order to offset this. Despite Adam’s insistence that he doesn’t want to go public, eventually he’s persuaded by Jamie, who likens this to a unicorn. Back in the office, Miguel is not happy. Adam heads in to see him claiming that he’s “heard” him and encourages his partner to wait and see what he has in store for them all. Well, it’s official and the We company go public, much to the smiles and jubilation of the different workers. At JP Morgan, Jamie sets his team at work, trying to figure out how much WeWork is actually worth. At Goldman Sachs they do the exact same thing, as they dig into all the nitty gritty details for WeWork’s finances. Of course, we know there are some serious issues here, and despite Adam’s big words and fancy presentations, things look set to take a nasty turn. The workers though all believe the company is about to blow up and make waves. They make big, lavish plans while Rebekah heads into WeWork to help Adam, despite feeling incredibly on-edge and angry over what’s happened between them. With Adam muttering that he made the company alone, Rebekah is livid. She’s the one who gave him the money, the vision and the words too; Adam has just taken them and moulded it into his own. After airing their problems out, the pair eventually let their frustrations out on the WeWork gong, smashing it while shouting out keywords. Off the back of this, Rebekah and Adam decide to rewrite the S-1 statement. Before they do, Adam ends up talking to Mikey, one of the employees that’s been with them for over 10 years now. He’s got 80,000 shares and Adam encourages him to drink expensive tequila before leaving that evening. According to Adam, those shares are going to be worth at least 30 mil when the company finally goes public. However, when Cam and the other businessmen see what Adam and Rebekah have done with the S-1 statement, they’re completely shocked. Cam likens it to a children’s book, going on to warn that they’re going to be absolutely destroyed. Miguel quietly slips away, angry that his name is only on six pages of the presentation. Eventually, he passes all the information onto a guy called Galloway. He writes about the S-1 statement on his blog, ripping WeWork to shreds.
The Episode Review
The delusional duo are about to get a rude awakening. Unfortunately, there are numerous workers that are about to get dragged down after being sucked into this scam too. Hey, that sounds like cryptocurrency doesn’t it? Being convinced to believe in something with the promise of being better later on…only to be left with nothing. Anyway, WeCrashed finally looks like it’s close to crashing out and boy what a long, drawn out ride this has been. There have been definite highlights with this series but also a fair amount of contrivances and needlessly long episodes that don’t really add very much to the story. The penultimate chapter is no exception, with more vanity pandering from Rebekah and Adam who find themselves falling in love with themselves over their projects. It’s got to the point now where I can’t wait to see these two crash and burn, revelling in their tears and despair during the hour long finale. This show could have easily been told in a 2 hour movie but for those who have persevered this long – we’re almost there guys! One more episode to go.
