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Before a company goes public, the only way you get to be on the board is by being a cheerleader. After a company goes public you have a lot more responsibilities.

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Right - I get that - but my thinking is, why would you make short-sighted greedy choices that are fundamentally bad business decisions? One could say hindsight is 20-20, but I don't buy that. WeWork at its core was a legit business (I say this as a former customer), unlike a say Theranos. It could have legitimately been a wildly successful company without the shenanigans. It seems trite to simply say that the board hoped they would get theirs before everything imploded.

I think they justified it by saying that they were aiming to be tech unicorn, not merely a real estate company; and it's par for the course for the board to pump and dump a tech unicorn once they realize the horn is about to fall off.

I see what you're saying, but what I'm saying is not even on that axis. If you don't have a history of talking up the startups you are attached to, you don't get invited to be on the board of startups.

If you are critical of the growth plan or business practices, you are fired from the board.

edit: actually we might be agreeing.

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