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It's official. Adam Neumann is stepping down as CEO of WeWork, adding a new chapter to the great drama of Silicon Valley and once again highlighting one of his key challenges: how to manage and exploit a genius?
People are complicated. Without Mr. Neumann's vision, drive and ambition, there would be no WeWork. And despite all its faults, Neumann has fundamentally changed the way people now occupy commercial buildings around the world. It is a remarkable feat. But the guy who had the passion, the genius and the vision to create WeWork is the same guy whose defects are now exposed to the world.
Sometimes start-up founders have the self-awareness, the seriousness and the business acumen needed to create groundbreaking companies and bring them private markets to the main stage via an IPO. However, it seems unrealistic for venture capitalists to expect each founder to have all the skills needed to realize a vision and market a business to the public. And even if they are qualified to do the job, fame and wealth can change people – and if nothing is done, they can leave you with a founder very different from the one with whom you started .
Without people like Adam Neumann, Travis Kalanick or Elon Musk, startups that are changing entire industries would never exist. We need them. But with these visionaries come the same potential flaws that make us all human. And this is where VCs need to intensify. Choosing never to support a start-up run by a slightly crazy genius is not an option. If the lack of variability and suspense is what you want, choose a new job. In addition, the mere fact of reversing the switch as soon as a company's startup approaches its IPO is not obvious, but everyone outside the venture capital ecosystem believes that the good meaning is paramount.
Look at Uber. The jury felt that he had to dismiss Kalanick – with whom I have been working for many years – and, even if he had his faults, choosing his opponent made no sense. This change has calmed the waves and avoided further public criticism on the board and in society, but this has not been sufficiently taken into account to give an idea of how society break new ground. In the end, the lack of reflection on anything other than crisis communications and damage control was disastrous. Markets lack confidence in Uber. The IPO has failed, the stock has weakened and Uber's shareholders (including me) have not benefited at all.
The solution must come a lot, much earlier in the process. Yes, venture capital is a highly competitive business. Yes, every venture capital partnership must have access to the highest caliber founders and the most radical ideas to succeed. And yes, capitalization companies exist to generate returns for their underlying investors. However, these dynamics do not exclude each other.
As VC, it is our responsibility to guide start-up companies throughout their life cycle. This includes mentoring and advice that resumes provide to founders throughout the company's journey. Obviously, there is no simple game book because every founder, sector and company brings different conditions. However, the responsibility of all board members and the funds they represent is the responsibility to mitigate the "inherent risks to the founder".
For this to work, it has to be a collective action solution because every venture capital firm wants to "win the market" every time. Even funds that have long been considered the gold standard are found in competitive financing rounds. The inclusion of an onerous control provision or the rejection of a proposed class action structure could cost you a place at the next Facebook table. That said, watching your fund's investment in a $ 47 billion company and seeing it drop to $ 8 billion (or wherever WeWork lands) is also not a good deal.
It's easy to say and hard to do. Venture capital is a company that builds on its reputation with both sponsors and founders. Some VCs will choose to give the founders the terms and conditions they want. But if the majority of the industry begins to demand more, the standards will eventually change. In the short term, this might not be preferable for the performance of a particular fund. But in the long run, it would help the whole sector.
Bradley Tusk is the founder and CEO of Tusk Ventures.
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