About this Event
A live conversation with acclaimed financial journalist and author Eliot Brown exploring what happens when startup growth, ambitious valuations, and investor expectations begin moving faster than the underlying business.
From WeWork and the venture capital boom to today's extraordinary investment in artificial intelligence, markets have repeatedly rewarded companies for growth long before the fundamentals fully justified the valuations. But when expectations become too high, the same forces that fuel rapid expansion can create enormous risks.
Drawing on years of reporting on startups, venture capital, technology companies, and financial markets, Eliot Brown will examine the warning signs behind some of the most celebrated growth stories—and what founders, investors, and business leaders can learn from them.
The conversation will explore:
• How venture capital incentives can encourage companies to prioritize growth over sustainable economics
• What happens when private-market valuations become disconnected from business fundamentals
• Lessons from the rise and collapse of WeWork
• How founder power and investor expectations can shape corporate decision-making
• Why markets sometimes reward unsustainable growth for years before the risks become visible
• Whether the current wave of AI investment shows signs of another technology-driven valuation cycle
• How founders and investors can distinguish genuine innovation from market hype
• What the next generation of technology companies can learn from previous startup booms and busts
Featured Speaker — Eliot Brown
Eliot Brown is a financial journalist and author at The Wall Street Journal, based in New York. He has reported extensively on startups, venture capital, technology companies, finance, and the forces shaping modern business.
He is the co-author of the bestselling book The Cult of We: WeWork, Adam Neumann, and the Great Startup Delusion, which examines the extraordinary rise of WeWork, the venture capital ecosystem behind it, and the broader culture of startup growth and valuation.
For this conversation, Brown brings the perspective of an investigative financial journalist who has closely examined how ambitious founders, investors, capital markets, and growth expectations can interact—and what can happen when those forces go too far.
Rather than functioning as a traditional finance conference, the event is designed as an intimate conversation for founders, investors, finance professionals, executives, technology professionals, journalists, and anyone interested in understanding the forces behind today's biggest business and technology bets.
The central question:
When does growth stop creating value—and start creating risk?
Event venue & nearby stays
New York Public Library - Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, 476 5th Avenue, New York, United States
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