Adam Neumann says taking a giant check from SoftBank is what broke WeWork — a cautionary story for founders and the investors backing his comeback.

• WeWork was cash-hungry but growing fast, doubling revenue yearly and planning a small raise before going public.
• SoftBank's Masayoshi Son instead pushed $4.2 billion on him in a single car ride, and the plan to slow down and turn profitable died there.
• Neumann says the money went to his head, the mission got lost, and bad decisions piled up until the company was forced into an IPO it wasn't ready for.
• The collapse left him with three employees and hundreds of millions in debt, and he says most of the friends who made money with him disappeared.
• He is back with Flow, a housing venture where Andreessen Horowitz has put in $470 million and he has put in $350 million of his own.

Outlook: Flow is betting on management deals instead of the long leases that sank WeWork, so its real test comes when it has to scale.