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How Did WeWork’s Adam Neumann Build a $47B Company?

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Re: How Did WeWork’s Adam Neumann Build a $47B Company?

#41

Post by BubRoss »

GCA10 wrote: post #25
olivermarks wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WeWorks multiple is irrelevant when it is losing money every quarter. This current era is redolent of the dying embers of the dot com boom - over leveraged loss makers trying to go public to pay back vast sums of borrowing from investors

This gets tricky. Yes, some loss-making businesses never turn profitable. But others do (i.e. Amazon). And when it comes to real-estate companies, the rather goofy U.S. tax rules mean that even quite robust companies will engineer huge depreciation losses when they actually are doing fine. WeWork might still be way overvalued in the private markets. But it could also be a lot healthier than its reported losses.

Amazon reinvested in itself to grow, it was losing money while building into a company worth more.

Re: How Did WeWork’s Adam Neumann Build a $47B Company?

#42

Post by ghaff »

nugget wrote: post #17
manishsharan wrote: post #11

Short Answer: he is riding the Gig economy just like Uber etc. Most viable businesses with a steady revenue stream can afford to rent office space and furnish it on their own. But the self employed folks -- the web designeers, SEM experts, and various other professionals without a steady employer need a place to work. For some, working from home is not an option due to regulation or family consideration etc. For most…

>Most viable businesses with a steady revenue stream can afford to rent office space and furnish it on their own Yes, but do they want to? My experience is that companies increasingly want to focus on their core competencies and nothing else, especially if the non core areas come with overhead in the form of full time employees. I could easily see non-HQ locations outsourced to a company like WeWork. For a satellite…

It's a bit like the discussions you read around cloud provider costs vs. doing things in-house (or whatever). There are a lot of overheads associated with a big company doing peripheral tasks in-house.

For example, to your point, that 50 person satellite office probably needs a full-time office manager and then all the costs that percolate upstream associated with having a full-time office manager and another lease to manage/office to service.

It may be worth it to have your own location with your own branding etc. Or you may just want a location where a bunch of employees can work, have meetings with customers/partners, etc. with minimal hassle.

Re: How Did WeWork’s Adam Neumann Build a $47B Company?

#43

Post by sixhobbits »

sharadov wrote: post #15

I have the next billion-dollar business idea, an " Airbnb for coworking spaces". Convert your existing house to a co-working space. Looked at Wework, already pay too much for rent in the Bay area. I work from home, and would not mind the company. Got good coffee and great beer as well!

Yeah I had this idea too. I stayed with some people in a fancy apartment in Zurich for a week a while back. They all left to work and I worked from their home. It was the best office I'd ever had, and was empty during work hours all week. I reckon 60% or more of city apartments are similar - seems very inefficient.

Re: How Did WeWork’s Adam Neumann Build a $47B Company?

#44

Post by jedberg »

sharadov wrote: post #15

I have the next billion-dollar business idea, an " Airbnb for coworking spaces". Convert your existing house to a co-working space. Looked at Wework, already pay too much for rent in the Bay area. I work from home, and would not mind the company. Got good coffee and great beer as well!

Yeah, come work at home with me! Then my children can bother you too. :)

Re: How Did WeWork’s Adam Neumann Build a $47B Company?

#45

Post by vadym909 »

sharadov wrote: post #30
spaceman_2020 wrote: post #23

My WeWork has three kinds of clients. The first kind sit in the dedicated desk area, work 10-12 hours/day and rarely leave the space for community events. They're either serious consultants/freelancers or just starting their own startups. The second kind sit in the shared desk area and basically dick around all day. They attend all the community events and use WeWork as mostly a networking/dating hub. Who they networ…

It's interesting that godaddy would opt for a wework rather than leasing office space and setting it up. Probably less cost and hassle?

its probably in a city where they dont have a presence and dont want to bother with setting on up.

Re: How Did WeWork’s Adam Neumann Build a $47B Company?

#46

Post by eckmlj »

cangencer wrote: post #32
cutenewt wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious what Regus' take is on WeWork (i.e. strategy). In other words, did they start a hip new WeWork-killer? Attempt to compete on price? Have special retention marketing campaigns to stave off clients from going to WeWork.

See https://www.spacesworks.com/ which is basically Regus with a different brand name. I am using their co-working in Copenhagen since a few months and quite happy so far.

Interesting, I did not know Spaces was under IWG! They are here in DC as well. Materially the office space is the same offering as WeWork, but there is a noticeably different vibe/sheen that is hard to pin down. Neither appeals to me as I find it hard to focus / get work done in coworking places like this, but WeWork just feels better executed / 'cooler' at first blush.

Re: How Did WeWork’s Adam Neumann Build a $47B Company?

#47

Post by avip »

wbronitsky wrote: post #33
avip wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A more cynical (and arguably more accurate) answer would be "he didn't".

Came here to literally type "he didn't" thank you for doing it first!

There are 3 ways to gain Karma in this place: be first, be smarter or cheat.

Re: How Did WeWork’s Adam Neumann Build a $47B Company?

#48

Post by cellis »

secabeen wrote: post #31
netaustin wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The"real business" of WeWork et al seems to be selling an entrepreneurial vibe to big companies. Lots of folks in my distributed company work at WeWorks around the country, and most of their neighbors work for big companies. One of my colleagues is almost fully surrounded by a Dish Network call center. WeWork will even custom build for big customers — in fact, their Enterprise landing page is a good an index to their…

The question is, why would a F500 company rent space from WeWork at a double-digit markup when they can do it themselves? This is not super hard or special stuff, and F500 companies need to do it enough that they can maintain the expertise. If the answer is "wework allows us to be elastic with real estate as our needs shift", then WeWork will be in for a lot of hurt at the next recession. If the answer is "we are usi…

Facilities management as a service?

Re: How Did WeWork’s Adam Neumann Build a $47B Company?

#49

Post by pawelk »

sharadov wrote: post #15

I have the next billion-dollar business idea, an " Airbnb for coworking spaces". Convert your existing house to a co-working space. Looked at Wework, already pay too much for rent in the Bay area. I work from home, and would not mind the company. Got good coffee and great beer as well!

Name it AirB2B and go get your initial founding round!

Re: How Did WeWork’s Adam Neumann Build a $47B Company?

#50

Post by wbronitsky »

avip wrote: post #47
wbronitsky wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Came here to literally type "he didn't" thank you for doing it first!

There are 3 ways to gain Karma in this place: be first, be smarter or cheat.

I'd also add "be pedantic, but use enough words to not be trite" but that would be a bit pedantic without being trite
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