I Read It So You Don’t Have To

I Read It So You Don’t Have To: ‘The Cult of We’

Two reporters tell the inside story of WeWork’s dramatic rise and implosion

I Read It So You Don’t Have To is a series that gives you the TL;DR on a business book you want to read — but don’t have time to.

What did I read?

The Cult of We: WeWork and the Great Start-Up Delusion by Eliot Brown and Maureen Farrell.

So who are Eliot Brown and Maureen Farrell?

Eliot Brown is a journalist who has covered start-ups and venture capital for The Wall Street Journal since 2010. Maureen Farrell is also a reporter for the Journal, whose work has received the Newswomen’s Club of New York’s Nellie Bly Award.

Give me the 30-second sell.

The Cult of We opens the lid on the rapid rise and even more rapid downfall of WeWork, the “we’re not a real estate” company that sold itself as a tech company to capitalize on the investor rush to throw money at the next big thing in Silicon Valley. At one point valued as high as $47 billion — while losing $3,000 a minute — WeWork eventually stumbled to an IPO, which had to be canceled, after which the…