The Property Industry Is Falling Out of Love with WeWork • Hacker News Board

Re: The Property Industry Is Falling Out of Love with WeWork

#61

Post by pl0x » Thu, Dec 20, 2018, 3:47 AM UTC

wevisit wrote: post #57

jacquesm wrote: post #46

I absolutely hate WeWork. Due to the nature of our work we have to meet with people there in various locations, the security on-site is laughable but at the same time they make you jump through all kinds of hoops such as photographing you face-first on entry, easily defeated by blocking the camera. The facilities are noisy, distracting, totally unusable to discuss anything that is even remotely confidential and there…

The photograph isn’t for security, it’s to send a notification to the person you’re visiting, they don’t have a problem with you choosing not to be photographed if you’re not comfortable with it. The notification includes your name and the picture because the wework member is expected to walk into the common area and find you, which is difficult if the wework member doesn’t know what you look like!

wevisit is a fake account created 3 mins ago by wework to post positive comments on this thread.

Re: The Property Industry Is Falling Out of Love with WeWork

#62

Post by wevisit » Thu, Dec 20, 2018, 3:47 AM UTC

tedivm wrote: post #51

jacquesm wrote: post #46

I absolutely hate WeWork. Due to the nature of our work we have to meet with people there in various locations, the security on-site is laughable but at the same time they make you jump through all kinds of hoops such as photographing you face-first on entry, easily defeated by blocking the camera. The facilities are noisy, distracting, totally unusable to discuss anything that is even remotely confidential and there…

Strong agree. My current company was in one for a few months before we got our own space, and it was one of the most miserable office experiences I've ever encountered. Almost everything about it sucked- * Their network was grossly misconfigured and directed traffic to the least used access point, regardless of the distance. It was a regular morning ritual for people in my office to toggle their wifi on and off repea…

Your WeWork experience is very much dictated by location. There are fantastic locations with great staff + high quality facilities, and there are poor quality locations with bad members, bad staff and bad facilities. Disruptive behaviour _is_ against the rules and staff _should_ take action and _do_ take action if you’re in a well managed location. All their locations should be well managed enough that you can trust the brand to be consistent but unfortunately that’s not true.

Re: The Property Industry Is Falling Out of Love with WeWork

#63

Post by wevisit » Thu, Dec 20, 2018, 3:48 AM UTC

pl0x wrote: post #61

wevisit wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The photograph isn’t for security, it’s to send a notification to the person you’re visiting, they don’t have a problem with you choosing not to be photographed if you’re not comfortable with it. The notification includes your name and the picture because the wework member is expected to walk into the common area and find you, which is difficult if the wework member doesn’t know what you look like!

wevisit is a fake account created 3 mins ago by wework to post positive comments on this thread.

I’m a wework member (who will happily talk shit about wework as I have done in another comment) who made an account because I’m on my phone without access to my main and I had useful information to share. If I was shilling for WeWork I wouldn’t name my account after the subject.

Re: The Property Industry Is Falling Out of Love with WeWork

#64

Post by pl0x » Thu, Dec 20, 2018, 3:48 AM UTC

donedeals wrote: post #39

pimlottc wrote: post #35

> WeWork forms a subsidiary to represent each lease deal, which means individual locations could fold without leaving the company itself with much risk. The parent company only guarantees the lease for about six to 12 months on a 15-year agreement, according to documents associated with WeWork’s inaugural bond offering. So, they sign a 15-year lease but are only on the hook for the first year? How does that work? Sou…

Wework Brooklyn #22 LLC signs the lease with the landlord and thus is responsible for the lease obligations. Wework LLC (proper) guarantees these lease payments for only 6- 12 months of the lease. After this time the only party responsible for the lease is the LLC that was formed. Landlords are likely agreeing to this only because Wework would never be able to sign a lease with any owner if they defaulted on a locati…

donedeals is another fake account from wework.

Re: The Property Industry Is Falling Out of Love with WeWork

#65

Post by RhodesianHunter » Thu, Dec 20, 2018, 3:51 AM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #46

I absolutely hate WeWork. Due to the nature of our work we have to meet with people there in various locations, the security on-site is laughable but at the same time they make you jump through all kinds of hoops such as photographing you face-first on entry, easily defeated by blocking the camera. The facilities are noisy, distracting, totally unusable to discuss anything that is even remotely confidential and there…

Only sharing because I see a lot of negative experiences and wanted to share a positive one.

I've worked out of a WeWork office through two different startups and would do so again.

For me it was the ideal way to save on costs with a small team before growing into our own place. It allowed us to forgo all of the generic office management crap and focus on our business.

WeWork offices all seem pretty different to me, so a lot probably depends on where you are.

Also in both cases I opted for the private office setup so noise wasn't an issue.

Re: The Property Industry Is Falling Out of Love with WeWork

#66

Post by pl0x » Thu, Dec 20, 2018, 3:51 AM UTC

WeWork is on their way to collapsing. The company is cult like with founders who have a god complex. Softbank and Saudi funding have saved them from collapse.

Re: The Property Industry Is Falling Out of Love with WeWork

#67

Post by RhodesianHunter » Thu, Dec 20, 2018, 3:54 AM UTC

gowld wrote: post #52

crazygringo wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The subsidiary signs the 15-year lease, not WeWork. So basically if the location turns out to be unprofitable, the subsidiary goes out of business or goes bankrupt and WeWork isn't stuck with the lease. From the landlord's perspective, yes it is basically equivalent to a year lease with option to extend... not totally clear why the landlord would agree to that.

Must be nice to be an immortal corporation that can just spin off any debts you don't want to pay, while mere mortals with finite lifespans and education debt and medical debt and credit card debt cannot unless we die.

What if I told you that you can create and own corporations too?

Re: The Property Industry Is Falling Out of Love with WeWork

#68

Post by RhodesianHunter » Thu, Dec 20, 2018, 3:56 AM UTC

dsr_ wrote: post #47

donedeals wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wework Brooklyn #22 LLC signs the lease with the landlord and thus is responsible for the lease obligations. Wework LLC (proper) guarantees these lease payments for only 6- 12 months of the lease. After this time the only party responsible for the lease is the LLC that was formed. Landlords are likely agreeing to this only because Wework would never be able to sign a lease with any owner if they defaulted on a locati…

Which sets them up for WeWork subsidiaries to default on any building that's more than X months old and unprofitable. That's a terrible deal for the landlord, if the landlord priced it as a 15 year deal instead of a one year. Absolutely great for WeWork. Terrible for anyone who wants offices, since WeWork will sit on a large chunk of the market.

If WeWork subsidiaries were defaulting right and left they wouldn't be able to get these deals.

They aren't, so they are.

Your comment seems to imply that the landowner has no choice.

Re: The Property Industry Is Falling Out of Love with WeWork

#69

Post by carlosdp » Thu, Dec 20, 2018, 3:59 AM UTC

Animats wrote: post #37

Uh oh, another overpriced company funded by Softbank. Softbank, remember, is funded by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund. They're also behind Uber. They seem to be the world's largest source of dumb money. I wonder what the big customer lease deals with WeWork look like. They probably don't get the markup they do with little tenants.

Partially true. Softbank as a whole is not funded by Saudi Arabia. Softbank's "Vision Fund", which invests in many US tech companies is like 45% Saudi money ($45b of a total $100b fund). The Vision Fund is the fund that invested in WeWork, though.

Re: The Property Industry Is Falling Out of Love with WeWork

#70

Post by resg4mp » Thu, Dec 20, 2018, 4:01 AM UTC

Their business model reminds me of MoviePass in the sense that it appears unsustainable, and that their main plan is to grow fast until they have market power to throw around. At least the math for WeWork isn't so obviously flawed as Moviepass was. I'm just disappointed at how many companies use this playbook in the startup world. Everyone just does stupid crap in hopes of becoming the "dominant platform", at which point they can charge whatever they want and people will have to play along.