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WeWork Gets a Visit from Financial Reality

bloomberg.com

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Re: WeWork Gets a Visit from Financial Reality

#311

Post by cityzen »

cmonfeat wrote: post #282
cityzen wrote: post #216

What are people's thoughts about a franchise model co-working space where the core company develops all of the technology, infrastructure, etc and then they are all independently owned and operated paying a franchise fee? I see a lot of people that want to start a co-working space and spin their wheels trying to figure out how to do it right. If there was a blueprint and turnkey solution to manage users, website pres…

Are you thinking a traditional franchise (like a gym) or a platform that independent landlords can list their co-working spacaces on (i.e. Airbnb for coworking spaces)? They both seem like less risky and more traditional tech plays than WeWork's current business model.

Years ago (before airbnb) I was working on that independent landlord idea and got cold feet when people I was interviewing seemed mostly concerned with insurance liability of having strangers in their space. LiquidSpace came along and did the same thing but they were funded so better equipped to navigate the liability issues.

That's when I started thinking about smaller co-working spots in strip malls and similar locations. Focus more on the details around managing co-working (member management, access management, etc) and franchise it out.

I have never gotten deep into the details so there are likely many reasons why it wouldn't work but as a work from home guy, it's something I'd love to have near me.

Re: WeWork Gets a Visit from Financial Reality

#312

Post by paranoidrobot »

fargo wrote: post #279
bartread wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The We Company": somebody didn't check what that sounds like when spoken in British English. Wait, what? A company that manufactures and or sells wee?!?? (Pee, to our American friends.) It's not as extreme as powergenitalia or expertsexchange but still something of a facepalm.

Mitsubishi Pajero is even worse

The joke being that the name fits the drivers.

(By way of explanation, 'pajero' roughly means 'wanker' in Spanish)

Re: WeWork Gets a Visit from Financial Reality

#313

Post by EthanHeilman »

lainga wrote: post #296
EthanHeilman wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The dystopian novel "We" tells the story of a society which encompass all aspects of your life, in both physical and mental worlds. >"We is set in the future. D-503, a spacecraft engineer, lives in the One State, an urban nation constructed almost entirely of glass, which assists mass surveillance. The structure of the state is Panopticon-like, and life is scientifically managed F. W. Taylor-style." https://en.wikipe…

Everything in We was made of glass, even the buildings, so everyone could see everyone else at all times. It was sort of like one giant coworking space.

I went looking for a good quote from "We" to capture that, but I didn't manage to find a chunk of text that was self-contained enough.

"If you want a picture of the future imagine a human trapped in a glass co-working space -forever" - George Orwell ...probably

Re: WeWork Gets a Visit from Financial Reality

#314

Post by joejerryronnie »

gojomo wrote: post #176
kgwgk wrote: post #93

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-01-08/wework... "In addition to the corporate finance weirdness: “Going forward, the company will no longer be called WeWork but rather The We Company.” (“The switch is not a legal name change,” okay.) And: “Rather than just renting desks, the company aims to encompass all aspects of people’s lives, in both physical and digital worlds,” which is—and I have spent years w…

We: Also, We won't let We eat meat. ( https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-13/wework-te... ) Me: But I like meat! We: Not if you want to be We, you don't. Are you sure you're We material?

Seriously, the day my employer bans meat is the day I walk out, right after ordering a side of beef delivered to the CEOs office.

Re: WeWork Gets a Visit from Financial Reality

#315

Post by slovette »

samschooler wrote: post #228
eddiezane wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently became remote and when hunting for a coworking space initially figured I'd just go to one of the WeWork's here (Denver). I was blown away at the cost of a "hot desk" membership [1]. The least expensive offering was $360/mo. For a desk that's not "yours" and you can't leave anything at. I wound up going with Novel [2] for $99/mo. Sure printing costs me $0.10/page but other than that it's pretty much a desk.…

I might end up at a desk near you! I'm currently looking for a co-working space in Denver.

Https://www.Proximity.space

Interesting startup. :)

Re: WeWork Gets a Visit from Financial Reality

#316

Post by SllX »

austinpray wrote: post #268
ezoe wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It happens all the time. Apple's Siri means Ass in Japanese.

I brought this up with my Japanese friend. He told me there are so many homophones in the language people are desensitised to stuff like this. For example: シ (shi) can mean both 四 (four) and 死 (death).

You’re not wrong, but your choice of examples isn’t great. Four is actually associated with death because it sounds like death, four is unlucky[4]. There is also an alternative pronunciation for “four”, よん。

[4] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetraphobia

Re: WeWork Gets a Visit from Financial Reality

#318

Post by joejerryronnie »

nwatson wrote: post #261
pkaye wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The funeral home can certainly be at fault. They try to upsell the options like a car salesman. They should just provide a list of options and let the family decide.

Yep, here's Liberace (famous pianist, here an actor) being the funeral analog of the car-salesman in the '60's movie "The Love One": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoZ5dTQa_2E

I definitely want “dampness proof”

Re: WeWork Gets a Visit from Financial Reality

#319

Post by joejerryronnie »

achillesheels wrote: post #89
scandox wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In 1999 there was an email going round about how ridiculous dotcom valuations were. Taking Amazon, I think, as an example it said it would have to earn more than Kodak, Boeing, Caterpillar etc to ever be worth it's valuation. There was a general sense of "it's just a bookstore". Now I know everything is more mature and the situation is different, but I also remember feeling very confident that Amazon was waaay overva…

Include me in the same boat, but that was many years before I learned value investing and fundamentally analysis of equities. One of which is gross margin analysis. Amazon, despite losing money, had very competitive gross margins from day one. I think pets.com was literally losing money on every product they sold (but don’t quote me), which is not sustainable.

They were losing money on each sale but they planned to make it up in volume.

Re: WeWork Gets a Visit from Financial Reality

#320

Post by tnecniv »

badwolf wrote: post #236
whalesalad wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not really tech bro's ... I don't encounter those people very often. I think that fraternity style vibe has kinda gone by the wayside. It's everyone else who aren't really technologists but want to get in on the gold rush. The social media marketing companies, the wordpress/magento factories, the crypto people, the uber-for-xyz... there is a lot of noise both literally and figuratively with these groups.

I'm currently "officing" in a WeWork dedicated desk. Out of all the desks immediately around me, I'm the only person working for a "tech" company. There's a building contractor, a couple designers, electrical engineers, and a Realtor, and a marketer for some distillery/alcohol co.

Just curious, what kind of company do the EEs work for if not tech?
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