EXHIBIT 001WeWork
BANKRUPTCAUSE OF DEATH: GROWTH AT ANY COST
They sold a tech company. The balance sheet showed a landlord. The difference cost billions.
$12.8BFinancing raised · by 2019
The autopsy archive
The case files.
Big promises. Bigger holes in the books.
Every collapse has a paper trail.
EXHIBIT 001
EXHIBIT 002Blockbuster
BANKRUPTCAUSE OF DEATH: FAILURE TO ADAPT
Netflix offered to sell. Blockbuster passed. The future didn’t wait for a second meeting.
N/AVenture funding · legacy retailer
EXHIBIT 003Airbnb
SURVIVEDNEAR-DEATH: NEAR-DEATH BY REJECTION
Before the billions, there were cereal boxes. An autopsy of the failure that almost happened.
$20KInitial Y Combinator investment
EXHIBIT 004FTX
BANKRUPTCAUSE OF DEATH: FRAUD & MISSING CONTROLS
The smartest money in the room missed the hole in the books. Customers paid for it.
$1.8B+Investor capital raised
FINANCING TYPES AND PERIODS ARE LABELED. LEGACY RETAILERS ARE NOT VENTURE-FUNDED STARTUPS.