// STARTUP COMPARISON
WeWork vs FTX
WeWork failed in 2023 due to Founder Chaos. FTX failed in 2022 due to Fraud. Different causes, different sectors, different eras — but the same simulation outcome.
| METRIC | 🔥 WeWork | 🔥 FTX |
|---|---|---|
| Sector | Real Estate | Web3 |
| Country | USA | USA |
| Founded | 2010 | 2019 |
| Died | 2023 | 2022 |
| Raised | $16B | $1.8B |
| Peak | $47B valuation | $32B valuation |
| Primary Cause | Founder Chaos | Fraud |
| Flame % | 🔥 95% | 🔥 95% |
// WHY EACH FAILED
🔥 WeWork
Founder Chaos
WeWork's 2019 IPO collapsed when its S-1 revealed $1.9B in losses on $1.8B revenue, a 29x valuation-to-revenue multiple, and Adam Neumann's erratic governance — including charging the company $5.9M for the trademark "We". SoftBank lost $14B. WeWork filed Chapter 11 in November 2023.
// LESSON
A real estate company with yoga is still a real estate company. Narrative premium has a ceiling. The market finds it during IPO due diligence.
A real estate company with yoga is still a real estate company. Narrative premium has a ceiling. The market finds it during IPO due diligence.
🔥 FTX
Fraud
FTX collapsed in November 2022 when CoinDesk revealed that Alameda Research held most assets in FTT token. A bank run followed. $8B in customer funds were missing. Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted in November 2023 and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
// LESSON
Customer funds are not operating capital. This is accounting 101, not a crypto insight. The collapse was a fraud problem, not a crypto problem.
Customer funds are not operating capital. This is accounting 101, not a crypto insight. The collapse was a fraud problem, not a crypto problem.
// IN THE SIMULATION
WeWork maxes out the NARRATIVE_PREMIUM variable then crashes to zero at IPO_ATTEMPT. The simulation caps narrative premium at 3x revenue. 29x triggers a hard correction event.
FTX triggers CUSTOMER_FUNDS_MISMATCH at the first liquidity event. The simulation tracks segregated customer funds as a hard constraint — not a suggestion.
// EXPLORE FURTHER