Stricken WeWork’s ‘conscious entrepreneurial’ school WeGrow to close
It is the company that was once valued at $69 billion before a stunning fall from grace. Now a “dumb” idea from its founder has collapsed too.
The fall from grace of office sharing company WeWork will surely become one of 2019’s cautionary tales of business hubris.
Thousands of people are likely to lose their jobs after Japanese conglomerate SoftBank stepped in with a $A14.6 billion rescue plan of the firm that was once valued at $69 billion.
Chief Executive Adam Neumann will walk away with nearly $A2.5 billion.
But it’s not just soon-to-be-sacked employees that have been left in the lurch. So have a group of moneyed up New York parents who sent their children to one of the most bizarre offshoots of the WeWork empire — a primary school.
Parents who enrolled their children at WeGrow, a Manhattan “conscious entrepreneurial” school owned by the firm, have been told they’ll need to find a new classroom for their kids.
Mums and dads who have shelled out up to $US48,000 ($A70,000) per year to send their offspring to WeGrow said they have felt “stranded” by the company, reported the Daily Beast.
And there’s no guarantee that a new school will offer WeGrow’s curriculum that combined maths and English with Hebrew and yoga - all washed down with a daily dose of “self-construction” and a compulsory “end of day gratitude circle”.
“Yet another dumb idea for a school is closing,” Amanda Uhry, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Manhattan Private School Advisors told the website.
FOUNDER MAJORED IN BUDDHISM
WeGrow was founded by Rebekah Paltrow Neumann, who also founded WeWork and is the wife of the now former CEO. She is the cousin of Gwyneth Paltrow, the actor and founder of controversial wellness site Goop.
“Making the wife the head of the school? Please. The woman had no experience,” said Ms Uhry.
Opened in 2018, WeGrow’s still active website has a page dedicated to Ms Neumann and extols her background.
“She majored in business and studied Buddhism at Cornell University, and has gained certification as a Jivamukti yoga teacher.
“Rebekah is committed to creating an educational community that fosters growth in humans’ minds, bodies, and souls.”
None of which appeared to make her obviously qualified to run a school.
RELATED: WeWork CEO Adam Neumann leaves company with $2.5 billion
But her enthusiasm wasn’t in doubt.
“These children come into the world, they are very evolved, they are very special. They’re spiritual,” Ms Neumann told Fast Company when the school opened last year.
“They’re all natural entrepreneurs, natural humanitarians, and then it seems like we squash it all out of them in the education system.”
The company was set up with cash from WeWork but Ms Neumann had high hopes it would eventually be able to sustain itself financially.
The school’s mission was to “elevate the collective consciousness of the world by expanding happiness and unleashing every human’s superpowers”.
It’s website said WeGrow could offer a “cosmic education” where students would learn about the “interconnectivity of the universe”.
‘MINDFUL EATING’
Located in the ritzy Chelsea neighbourhood of New York, it looked more like a start-up than a school. Classrooms were scattered with “acoustic clouds”, “tree houses” and a “vertical farm”. Kids could climb into suspended wooden cocoons to read.
The website described the design of the school as a “field of super-elliptical objects forming a learning landscape that’s dense and rational — yet free and fluid.”
Every morning pupils would take part in a “grow cycle” which involved “self-construction through independent and collaborative interaction with materials”. In other words, making things.
“Yoga asana, pranayama, meditation and intention setting,” were all part of the busy school day. At lunchtime, kids could dine out on “mindful eating”.
WeGrow’s “conscious creators” program saw “leading creators in their respective fields” offer “one-on-one mentorships” to students.
Kids would grow food in the farm and then sell it at a fruit and veg stall to WeWork staff.
A glossy video on the WeGrow website showed eager parents lapping it up.
“It’s like someone designed a school based on our wish list. A school that values vegetarianism, yoga, meditation, technology, entrepreneurship and farming,” said one dad.
“They’re more like coaches that teachers. It allows the children to measure their own level of success,” gushed another.
In another clip, Adam Neumann can be seen skylarking with a gaggle of students explaining what success means to him.
“Having a friend that you love — that’s success. Being happy all day — that’s success.”
He didn’t mention success as having billions of dollars of stock options in a start-up.
It turned out that many of the 100 or so students at the school had at least one parent employed at the wider We Group. Some of those were paying nothing like the astronomical fees but were on We scholarships.
SCHOOL TO CLOSE
Earlier this month, WeGrow told parents the dream of a “conscious entrepreneurial” school was dead.
“As part of the company’s efforts to focus on its core business, WeWork has informed the families of WeGrow students that we will not operate WeGrow after this school year,” the company said in a statement seen by Huffington Post.
“WeWork will continue to operate WeGrow through the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year, providing a quality education and classroom experience for all students.”
Some fear it could close sooner than that.
Huff Post spoke to parents that said their kids were “happy and thriving” at WeWork. But the school was also subject to constant changes or “disruption,” — not unlike start-ups — sometimes without full consideration for the children.
WeWork came undone after a planned multi-billion dollar stock market flotation spectacularly unravelled. It has never turned a profit.
SoftBank is now cutting the fat as it seeks to shrink WeWork into a workable, potentially profitable, rump.
As well as ditching the school, and hundreds of staff, SoftBank may also axe some of WeWork’s prime city centre locations it leased hoping to attract millennial to its open plan offices. Other odd offshoots, such as apartments and gyms, also look doomed.
As well as Mr Neumann selling about $A1.46 billion of stock the former boss will also be paid a $A270 million consulting fee from the Japanese firm.
In addition, Mr Neumann will receive a $A730 million credit line from SoftBank to help pay off his loans to US bank JPMorgan Chase, according to the Wall Street Journal.
This windfall is coming as WeWork’s value plummets from an estimated $A68.6 billion to its current valuation of just $A11.7 billion.
Mr Neumann will walk away from his position on WeWork’s board.
On WeGrow’s promotional video, one parent talks proudly of the school: “WeGrow is helping children adapt to the rapidly changing world around us that we all see.”
That world is rapidly changing so fast that by the end of the year WeGrow will no longer exist.
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