WeWork cofounder Adam Neumann, left, and Starbucks founder Howard Schultz. Jackal Pan/Reuters; Spencer Platt/Getty Images Former WeWork CEO Adam Neumann met with former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz in 2018, according to the new book "Billion Dollar Loser" by Reeves Wiedeman. At the time, Neumann was interested in expanding into retail, and Schultz gave him advice: stop growing for six months in order to correct problems within your business before they come back to haunt you.