ETtech Opinion: Alpha Founders, VC Greed

Last week Adam Neumann, the once celebrated and later controversial founder of the office-sharing startup WeWork, raised $350 million for his latest venture Flow, a startup looking to disrupt the residential rental real estate market in the US. The massive financing – the largest cheque signed off by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz in an individual company – valued Flow at $1 billion.

Remember that the startup isn’t operational yet. The development grabbed headlines and everyone weighed in on what this meant, keeping Neumann’s unceremonious exit from WeWork in mind. The news was even more eye-popping having come at a time when ‘funding winter’ has hit technology companies across public and private markets. Aside from the size of the fundraise and the timing, it also stirred up hot-takes on how VCs aren’t shy to back entrepreneurs who have had a chequered past.