Rebekah Neumann only likes white-colored technology. That means no rose gold iPhones, or silver Google Android devices.
The WeWork co-founder's preference for white technology once led staff to buy a can of white paint, disassemble her desktop phone – which they couldn't buy in white – then paint it and reassemble it, two employees said.
Neumann most recently was the CEO of the company's educational effort, WeGrow, before stepping down last week. Multiple employees highlighted the seeming disconnect between Rebekah and Adam Neumann's approach to their own technology and how they worked to position WeWork as a tech company. The current and former employees talked to Business Insider as part of a larger story on what it's like to work at WeWork.
A one-time actress who is cousins with Gwyneth Paltrow and graduated from Cornell University majoring in business and Buddhism, Rebekah Neuman was responsible for a lot of the creative elements of We's early slogans like the neon "hustle harder" signs. Some employees described an almost absolutist aesthetic, particularly when it came to a preference for all-white personal technology.
She and previous WeWork CEO Adam Neumann didn't use their computers, multiple employees said. A spokeswoman for the Neumanns said Adam is dyslexic and prefers to dictate messages into his phone.
At one point, more than a dozen WeWork staffers had iPads with access to Adam Neumann's iMessage account to field messages for him, multiple ex-employees said. One source who worked closely with the C-suite described it as a logistical and security nightmare.
A WeWork spokesperson declined to comment on the Neumanns' technology preferences but said the company is moving in a new direction under new co-CEOs Artie Minson and Sebastian Gunningham.
"We are aggressively committed to moving the company forward and building a company and culture that our employees can be proud of," the spokesperson said.
For more on what it's like to work at WeWork, read the larger story here.
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