Is Andreessen Horowitz becoming the next SoftBank?

Venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz announced that it’s invested $350M in Flow, a rental-community startup. Flow is the latest venture by Adam Neumann, who previously founded and led WeWork.

Why should we care?
Neumann’s track record is shoddy, if not frightening. As has been chronicled in popular culture—from books to TV shows—since his downfall, Neumann wasted investor money on alcohol, side ventures, and flashy attractions like a wave pool, forsaking WeWork’s core initiatives. Under his helm, the company also tried to get away with grifty accounting practices, inventing something called “community-adjusted EBITDA,” which excluded operational costs like rent—a huge portion of the proptech giant’s expenditures—from its financial reports. Under Neumann’s leadership, WeWork’s IPO imploded, and the company’s value began nosediving so severely that investors paid Neumann almost $1B to leave the company. “We understand how difficult it is to build something like this and we love seeing repeat-founders build on past successes by growing from lessons learned,” Marc Andreessen wrote in a blog post announcing the deal, alluding to widespread criticism of Neumann’s leadership and business practices. “For Adam, the successes and lessons are plenty and we are excited to go on this journey with him and his colleagues building the future of living.” This is the second time a16z has invested in a Neumann-led initiative since his WeWork exit, and it’s also the company’s largest check ever. But Flow lacks a clear business model: further cause for alarm. Through its continued faith in Neumann—a mistake now-struggling investment conglomerate SoftBank once made—Andreessen Horowitz risks following in the Japanese giant’s footsteps, mistaking charisma for competence.