WHAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES
At the start of 2019, Fast Company ran a 5,300-word examination of what we called “Masa World,” the empire built by SoftBank Vision Fund founder Masayoshi Son. Contributor Katrina Brooker laid out how Son had amassed $100 billion, which he used to back a group of ambitious entrepreneurs deploying artificial intelligence and machine learning to transform food delivery, commerce, transportation, and more. Of all the strivers he’d backed, however, a clear favorite emerged: Adam Neumann, the charismatic cofounder of WeWork. In this issue, our final of 2019, Brooker chronicles the crash of WeWork and the collapse of Neumann’s relationship with Son. Through interviews with dozens of investors, Son and Neumann associates, and current and former WeWork employees, Brooker details the cooling of a once fervid business relationship. In the process, she…