WILLWORK- Five reasons why Adam Neumann's new startup could be the safest bet around

Here is my (perhaps unpopular) opinion on why Adam Neumann’s new $350M raise from Andreesen Horowitz may actually turn out to be a good thing.

Over the last days, we have seen countless posts and articles bashing Neumann and the very notion of him being back on the horse after the WeWork incident. Since I believe that we should judge everyone with the same metrics, here?are five points that shed light on why it may actually be the best bet around.

1. We are often told that entrepreneurs who have failed with startups before are more likely to succeed than first timers. In fact, failure is warmly embraced by the eco system with “f*ckup nights” on open bars. One thing is certain: they have the 'dos and don't dos" bible written out for them by Wework.
2. Is it really so uncommon for a unicorn company to get cut by 80% if it’s “estimated worth” when approaching IPO stages? We are seeing this on a daily basis and now call it a “tech crisis”. Yet, we do not blame the companies or their founders.
3. Wework led a trend, and when you lead a trend, you are not only the first to rise but also the first to fall. In that sense, Wework was just ahead of it’s time. In fact, we were just informed this week that SoftBank has lost $23B this quarter alone, and no one jumped out of their chairs. It's just the Zeitgeist.
4. It is, perhaps, unfair to call Wework a failure after it has revolutionized working culture worldwide and led a trend that stretches far beyond office rentals. There is obviously a product market fit, a strong brand and a growing trend. It’s just about crunching the numbers and they could still prove to be a thriving profitable business in the future.
5. This time, according to the press, Neumann is putting his own money on the table and putting in 3.000 apartments which he owns (!) as a part of the experiment. There is an undoubtable need in the housing market for new living concepts and novel real estate models that create added value for tenants. How they will implement this it is the real question.

So will Flow turn out to be a real estate unicorn that will change the way we live? It's way too soon to tell, but it is surely positioned with the right pedigree to do so.