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WeWork succeeded ? What ?

by shmde 3y ago

cmcaleer 3y ago
If extracting billions from SoftBank isn’t a success then I want to be the biggest failure there is.
mike_d 3y ago
Yeah. At one point the company had over 700k paying members, almost half of which were from companies with over 500 employees. At the peak the company was the largest holder of Manhattan commercial office space. The part the "documentaries" left out is that there was actually a really good business at the core. Giving companies of any size the ability to hire in any market globally and giving their employees the flexibility to live almost anywhere, while maintaining the amenities that tech workers have come to expect. We just had a chain of completely incompetent leaders who refused to see the company for what it was. Adam used the company to launch his own montessori school for his children because that was more exciting and "visionary" than building a managed service provider model and leasing laptops to member companies and providing unified helpdesk/IT at every location (which would have absolutely printed money). He bought a literal glass factory (to make cool windows) instead of leveraging our network of small business owners to have almost zero customer acquisition cost for high margin businesses like managed book keeping or HR/payroll.
- david_shi 3y ago
  So the issue was in the leadership handoff? It seems like Uber executed tremendously well where WeWork fell short.
  - mike_d 3y ago
    Eh the damage was already done at that point. I don't know how much detail I can go into, but if A16Z wants to avoid some write-downs I am available for a reasonable consulting fee.
- jrflowers 3y ago
  > The part the "documentaries" left out is that there was actually a really good business at the core. This is a good point. Not enough time is spent on what WeWork could have been if it had been managed very differently by a completely different set of people
  - rchaud 3y ago
    That assumes that investors would have given the same amount of money to someone who didn't do the barefoot leather jacket Jesus act.
- aidenscott2016 3y ago
  > maintaining the amenities that tech workers have come to expect. Such as what? Beer, and coffee table books?
- verve_rat 3y ago
  To be fair, it sounds like you are saying WeWork would have succeeded if only it had done things it didn't and not done things it did. That is different than saying that WeWork was successful.

WeWork succeeded ? What ?

by shmde 3y ago

WeWork succeeded ? What ?

cmcaleer 3y ago

If extracting billions from SoftBank isn’t a success then I want to be the biggest failure there is.

mike_d 3y ago

Yeah. At one point the company had over 700k paying members, almost half of which were from companies with over 500 employees. At the peak the company was the largest holder of Manhattan commercial office space. The part the "documentaries" left out is that there was actually a really good business at the core. Giving companies of any size the ability to hire in any market globally and giving their employees the flexibility to live almost anywhere, while maintaining the amenities that tech workers have come to expect. We just had a chain of completely incompetent leaders who refused to see the company for what it was. Adam used the company to launch his own montessori school for his children because that was more exciting and "visionary" than building a managed service provider model and leasing laptops to member companies and providing unified helpdesk/IT at every location (which would have absolutely printed money). He bought a literal glass factory (to make cool windows) instead of leveraging our network of small business owners to have almost zero customer acquisition cost for high margin businesses like managed book keeping or HR/payroll.

david_shi 3y ago
So the issue was in the leadership handoff? It seems like Uber executed tremendously well where WeWork fell short.
- mike_d 3y ago
  Eh the damage was already done at that point. I don't know how much detail I can go into, but if A16Z wants to avoid some write-downs I am available for a reasonable consulting fee.
jrflowers 3y ago
> The part the "documentaries" left out is that there was actually a really good business at the core. This is a good point. Not enough time is spent on what WeWork could have been if it had been managed very differently by a completely different set of people
- rchaud 3y ago
  That assumes that investors would have given the same amount of money to someone who didn't do the barefoot leather jacket Jesus act.
aidenscott2016 3y ago
> maintaining the amenities that tech workers have come to expect. Such as what? Beer, and coffee table books?
verve_rat 3y ago
To be fair, it sounds like you are saying WeWork would have succeeded if only it had done things it didn't and not done things it did. That is different than saying that WeWork was successful.