# In 3 months, Adam Neumann raised nearly half a billion dollars.

**Published by:** [Durwin](https://paragraph.com/@durwin/)
**Published on:** 2022-09-09
**URL:** https://paragraph.com/@durwin/in-3-months-adam-neumann-raised-nearly-half-a-billion-dollars

## Content

Adam Neumann’s New Startup Flow Gets Backing From Andreessen Horowitz to the tune of $350M, for a startup that doesn’t even have a product or a clear proposition.If there is a world record for who can raise the most money the fastest, it would be won by Mr Adam Neumann. Adam Neumann just broke the world record for raising the most amount of money in the shortest period of time, during a bear market. He is the greatest showman in startup history. The absolute genius of a fund-raising magician of our time. A charming wizard that can really put the entire startup and tech world up in flames just by making the headlines. Flow, Adam’s new startup, just raised $350M from a16z. Don’t even ask me what Flow does, I don’t even think Adam quite knows it yet. I seen so many posts across different social media about how its about white male toxicity, how Adam shouldn’t have a second chance, how Marc Andreessen made a grave mistake and even Wework’s failure was brought into the fray. We get it, reporters hate him, everyone is flogging the story and casting doubts. So much vitriol, controversy, chaos and opinions flying around, that can’t be good for health. Maybe that was the intended effect? Stir the pot, good or bad, publicity is publicity.Masayoshi Son, the founder of SoftBank, became one of them in 2017 with an initial outlay of $4.4 billion in a deal valuing WeWork at $20 billion.Yes Adam did kind of screwed up Wework with his mismanagement and supposed shenanigans. He did make the news with all his weird antics and questionable behaviour. But unlike Elizabeth Holmes from Theranos who clearly committed crimes, did he really do anything wrong or illegal? If so, he should be in jail. Which he isn’t. Last I check, mismanagement and bad judgement are not jailable offences. But surely the markets will take care of it and nobody would trust him to run another company right? a16z: hold my beer. That $350 million for Flow is the largest individual check a16z has ever written in history. All that for a company couple months old and with no product, traction, revenue, customer to show for? That smells a little funky. Is Adam really THAT good? Ok even if he is, is he worth a $350M bet? Does a16Z see something none of us do? Are repeat founders that much better a bet? I used to think the most important for founders was trust. Because how can anyone give you money if they don’t trust you?WeWork founder Adam Neumann’s Flowcarbon raises $70 million from a16z, token sale.Turns out I was sorely wrong. You don’t need trust. You just need to be Adam. Let’s zoom out for a second and see what we are missing. Maybe it made sense for a16z. Adam is a repeat founder, changed the game with Wework and had experience running a multi-billion dollar unicorn. You just don’t find that in a founder any day. Like it or not, Wework is still surviving, albeit a dip in valuation from $47B to $9B. For a16z, there is a chance Flow can 10X or even 50X. When you have a pot worth billions, even making 2X on 1 bet is something you don’t want to miss. I suspect whatever Adam does with Flow, it will be closely tied to crypto and blockchain. Just watch. - Does Adam Neumann’s new pre-product startup (Flow) raising $350M make sense to you? - #startups #business #startupx #growth #success #socialmedia #culture #web3 #strategy #adamneumann #adam #flow #flowcarbon #a16z #marcAndreessen #eth #btc #crypto #blockchain #billions

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