The stunning rise and fall of WeWork that has played out over the course of this year — like something straight out of a David Mamet script — seemed to end with a whimper this week. China’s SoftBank agreed to take a majority stake in the embattled company, which was in danger of running out of cash in the coming weeks. SoftBank already owned about a third of the company. It now will own 80% — the deal valuing WeWork at around $8 billion, far less than the company was aiming for in its ill-fated IPO plans. 

The deal will leave founder Adam Neumann a billionaire, while hundreds of WeWork employees have been or are expected to be laid off. 

SoftBank was a major investor in WeWork during its rise to prominence. The Wall Street Journal reports that SoftBank’s founder, Masayoshi Son, told investors on a conference call this week he had “put too much faith” in Neumann, whose erratic ways have been well chronicled by the press. 

This should be a stark lesson for investors in the future not to get caught up in the cult of personality of a charismatic start-up founder, and that balance sheets and business models are important.