For the board of The We Company-better known as WeWork-August 14, 2019 promised to be a pivotal day. It was then that WeWork's IPO prospectus, known as an S-1 filing, would be made public, giving potential investors, the media, and the general public a window into the company's inner workings. Under U.S. securities laws, a company planning to offer new securities for sale to the public was required to file a Form S-1, or registration statement, with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), whose mandate was to evaluate companies' compliance with SEC disclosure rules, not the quality of the investment. In anticipation of that day, WeWork's directors had an opportunity to review the S-1-as presented in a series of some two dozen excerpts from the S-1 in the exhibits to the case-and offer the management team any final comments and suggestions for changes.