🍪 Adam Neumann says WeBack

Author

Bite Sized Beta
August 18, 2022

What’s good, friends. It’s finally late August, which means it’s almost pumpkin spice latte time, which means it’s basically almost Christmas. See how that works?

Let’s dive in before I start caroling.

In the oven this week:

  • 🏡 Adam Neumann's comeback

  • 🍪 5 Bite-sized cookies

  • 🍫 Chocolate chips: 3 fun finds

  • 😂 Weekend memes

FRESHLY BAKED

NEUMANN SAYS: WEBACK!

Andreessen Horowitz is giving Adam Neumann (WeWork founder) $350M (its largest check ever) for his new real estate company, Flow, valuing it at over $1 billion before it even starts operating.

Let's see what the meme lords have in store for us:

Flow will operate 3,000 apartments in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Atlanta, and Nashville, in hopes of bringing community to apartment renting.

Neumann is a controversial character, but hear me out - it might not be thaaat crazy to give him another shot.

Does he have some... character flaws? Yes.

Did he get carried away with WeWork? Uh huh.

Does he subscribe to Bite Sized Beta? 100%

Ok maybe we added that last part, but the thing is, it's not that easy to create a multi-billion dollar company.

People are still working out of WeWorks because it's changed how companies think about their office space. He's got pressure to not screw up this time, plus, at least now investors are going in eyes wide open.

TBH, I kinda respect that he's still at it, 'cause he could've taken his billions and just peaced out. We'll see what lessons he did or didn’t learn in due time.

But the most ironic part about this whole deal is that Marc Andreessen, whose name is on the official blog post for Flow, recently got roasted for complaining to the mayor of Atherton (where he lives) about how construction of multi-family units would decrease his home value and quality of life.

It's time to build, but not near me!!

COOKIE CRUMBS

BITE SIZED TREATS

🚨 Oracle is auditing TikTok's algorithms to reassure lawmakers that the app isn't being manipulated by the Chinese government. Can anyone, ANYONE, tell me what exactly Oracle does again??

🚙 Doordash is going to start delivering the stuff you buy from Facebook Marketplace. Pretty sweet, especially if you’re sketched out by the idea of making a trip to some rando’s house to haul a table home.

📈 As we predicted, Disney+ surpassed Netflix in subscribers this week, causing its stock to jump 10%. Even more maddening for Netflix, streaming only makes up ~20% of Disney’s revenue. (To Netflix’s credit though, they still make more $$ per sub)

🧪 Turns out, depression ain’t caused by a “chemical imbalance in the brain.” Remember when 9th grade biology taught you that low serotonin levels cause depression? Well, a new review of 17 different studies shows there’s "no convincing evidence" for it after all. Oh and apparently, antidepressants don’t work better than placebos in 85% of cases. Wild. The more ya know…. the more ya don’t know.

😂 Meta created an AI chatbot called BlenderBot, but it can’t stop hating on Facebook. It also thinks Trump is still president.

CHOCOLATE CHIPS

GREAT FINDS

Some fun nonsense this week:

SNICKERDOODLES

THURSDAY MEMES

That's all, folks! See ya next week.

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