‘WeCrashed’s S-1 Episode Is as Insane as the True Story

WeCrashed is far from a perfect show or even a perfect exploration into WeWork, for that matter. As I’ve covered before, it’s a series that seems as in love with WeWork’s founders as they were with each other. But for all of its romanticizing and jarringly inspirational music cues, WeCrashed does one thing extraordinarily well. It accurately lambasts WeWork’s ridiculous S-1.

The S-1 prospectus is essential to any company looking to go public. It’s an SEC filing that registers the company’s securities while explaining basic business and financial information. Investors often use it to research the company before its initial public offering (IPO). If all of that sounds unbelievably boring, that’s the point. An S-1 is a bit like a contract; it’s supposed to be dry, not fun. That’s not route WeWork took, and that truly wild decision stands at the center of “The Power of We.”

The penultimate episode of WeCrashed revolves around Adam Neumann (Jared Leto) making one of the biggest decisions in his young company’s life. Should he continue asking investors for money? Or should he take WeWork public and risk exposing its endless lies and rapid spending to the public? Three-quarters of the way through the episode, he decides to make his struggling wife Rebekah (Anne Hathaway) a co-founder and go public. That’s what brings us to the document that would start to sink the real WeWork.

Initially, Rebekah sticks to the assignment. But it isn’t long before this newly appointed head of a co-working company is once again talking about “elevating the world’s consciousness.” In scenes filled with swelling music, Adam and Rebekah completely rewrite the bank’s clear-cut S-1. On the more WTF side of things, they add pictures and declare WeWork to be a meatless company. But then there are the touches of near fraud that have always been interwoven into this story. Rather than providing an EBITDA — Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization, which is widely considered to be a clear measurement of a company’s profitability — the couple creates their own measurement. This one subtracts tenant fees as well as expenses for rent, staffing, design, marketing, and administration, you know, basically all the expenses future investors need to know about. Coincidentally, this measurement is one of the only ways WeWork can appear profitable.

When Adam’s venture capital rival Cameron (O. T. Fagbenle) sees the document, he sums up its legacy perfectly: “They’re going to fucking destroy us.”

That is exactly what happened to WeWork’s real S-1. Professor and speaker Scott Galloway was one of the first people to tear into this “wallpaper” of a filing. WeCrashed covers some of the weirdest aspects of this intent to go public, from the aforementioned and nonsensical “community-based EBITDA” to its pictures and the staggering 169 times Adam Neumann’s name appears in the document. But Galloway’s original blog also covered some of the other red flags that would come to haunt WeWork. Those include its alarming gross margins as well as Neumann cashing out $700 million in stock. That post would lead to everything from articles mocking the company for its on tap kombucha to a full-fledged investigation by the Wall Street Journal.

Before WeWork’s S-1 filing, there were rumors that the company wasn’t as sunny as it seemed. Despite those, people still believed in the myth of the unicorn. This document proved that WeWork was just a horse after all. It’s fitting that St. Vincent’s “New York” plays throughout these scenes in “The Power of We.” For many, this moment did embody the loss of a hero.

Since its first episode, WeCrashed has worked hard to make its audiences fall in love with Adam and Rebekah Neumann’s vision. It’s a job the series has often done too well, glossing over how employees worked endless hours and put their lives on hold to paint its love story. But even the most romanticized version of this relationship — and WeCrashed is close to that — can’t ignore reality. That’s the hard truth “The Power of We” presents. And though he will land on his feet, it’s gratifying to see this version of Adam exposed for the near fraudster he is.