Mr. WeWork Starts Another Real Estate Company

Adam Neumann, the person of WeWork infamy, is getting again into the actual property sport—this time to “disrupt” the residential market. The billionaire is beginning up a brand new firm aimed toward one way or the other addressing and capitalizing on the U.S. housing disaster (although present particulars are scant.)

Whatever the precise concept is although, the beginning up, known as “Flow,” has already proved attractive sufficient to draw one in every of Silicon Valley’s largest traders. Andreessen Horowitz—the identical kingmaker enterprise capital agency that was early to financial institution on heavy-hitters like Facebook, AirBnb, Twitter, NFT platform OpenSea, Clubhouse, and so many others—has invested $350 million in Flow, in accordance a report from the New York Times. The massive funding implies that Flow is valued at greater than $1 billion earlier than the beginning up has even began up.

“Adam is a visionary leader who revolutionized the second largest asset class in the world — commercial real estate — by bringing community and brand to an industry in which neither existed before,” wrote Marc Andreessen in a firm blogpost asserting the funding.

“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. 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,” Andreessen additional wrote. Which is actually a method to take a look at What Neumann did by WeWork.

Another approach to take a look at it may be: He billed a fundamental workplace leasing firm as a visionary tech concept, received it valued at $47 billion, after which fled with a $1.7 billion buyout when the entire thing inevitably crashed and burned. Andreessen Horowitz didn’t instantly reply to Gizmodo’s request for remark.

Note: Neumann and Andreessen Horowitz already teamed up as soon as earlier this yr, for the similarly-named, although seemingly unrelated, crypto carbon credit score enterprise, Flowcarbon (which is its personal, separate bag of worms).

Flow has but to launch, and the associated web domain merely says “coming 2023,” with no additional details about what the corporate plans to be or do. But some hints of the corporate’s focus may very well be discovered within the Andreessen Horowitz weblog.

The publish summarizes the issues of more and more unaffordable mortgages, renters spending cash with out getting something in return, lack of funding in neighborhood, and the methods wherein the covid-19 pandemic has shifted societal views on distant work and the place individuals select to stay. “The residential real estate world needs to address these changing dynamics. And yet virtually no aspect of the modern housing market is ready for these changes,” wrote Andreessen.

Fun reality: Though the billionaire investor has usually publicly positioned himself as all-in on more development as a approach to fight rising housing prices, Andreessen has personally (and relatively aggressively) petitioned his personal metropolis council to deny multi-family rezoning.

Neumann, in the meantime, has purchased up greater than 3,000 flats in Atlanta, Nashville, Fort Lauderdale, and Miami—which shall be a part of the startup, in keeping with the NYT. “His aim is to rethink the housing rental market by creating a branded product with consistent service and community features,” wrote the Times. Flow will reportedly instantly run these 3,000 models and likewise “offer its services” to different developments.

So, it appears like Mr. WeWork has give you the concepts of planned communities and property administration. Or perhaps cult compounds. Or perhaps simply residence buildings with facilities. Probably, there’s an app concerned. Real revolutionary stuff. But who’re we, at Gizmodo, to say what’s or isn’t a sound funding. After all, we’re principally a web site that covers expertise, not actual property.