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WeWork IPO Shows It's the Most Magical Unicorn

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Re: WeWork IPO Shows It's the Most Magical Unicorn

#101

Post by sachdevap »

tomhoward wrote: post #52
qsymmachus wrote: post #38

WeWork's business model makes more sense when you realize it's probably just a scheme for transferring VC money directly into Adam Neumann's pocket. He owns a number of the buildings that WeWork is leasing: https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2019/01/16/wework-c...

No longer true; he transferred them to a fund owned by the company: https://www.businessinsider.com.au/wework-ark-fund-to-buy-co...

That link says he transferred them at cost, which means he still made a profit off of them beside the company. The fact that he even did that in the first place is very questionable.

Re: WeWork IPO Shows It's the Most Magical Unicorn

#102

Post by School-Cotton »

loceng wrote: post #68
lifeisstillgood wrote: post #39

The City of London is having a skyscraper boom at the moment - two major 100+ floor buildings are going up and you can hardly turn a corner without some crane or building work going on. I personally (and without any empirical evidence) think that there is no way London needs this much more office space, partly because "Brexit China Tariffs", but mostly because remote working and "just not in the office five days a we…

I wonder what happened to the concept of the garage startup that Silicon Valley's foundation is famous for? Too much money from profits and not enough people or ideas to invest in? Paying for an office space is an extremely inefficient use of resources, especially when plenty of cafe space - or just, you know, your living room, kitchen - or garage - are useful even for teams of 20+ because will be rare to need everyo…

Maybe it could work for founders, but as an employee I would absolutely not sign on to a company whose space is a garage. First of all, it signals precariousness and non-seriousness. Second, I can get a job at any number of companies in more comfortable settings, so why shouldn’t I?

Maybe part of the difference is related to supply and demand: potential employees have other opportunities, so why should they make sacrifices for companies they don’t own more than 0.5% of?

Re: WeWork IPO Shows It's the Most Magical Unicorn

#103

Post by School-Cotton »

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #41

I feel like something must be seriously wrong with capitalism if it can keep creating these startups and funnelling endless hundreds of milions into them so they can accumulate debt, lose money, and achieve absolutely nothing of value.

Even if that’s true, why should it bother you that money is being extracted from rich VCs and distributed to other rich people in the worst case, and working- and middle-class employees and customers in the best case?

Re: WeWork IPO Shows It's the Most Magical Unicorn

#104

Post by anthony_doan »

AlchemistCamp wrote: post #61
mywittyname wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pinterest probably has an amazing tech stack. I am surprised that it doesn't get more love around here.

They were very early adopters of Elixir!

They do? They should actually talk about it on their tech blog (https://medium.com/@Pinterest_Engineering). I couldn't find it other then third party post talking about them using it (https://prograils.com/posts/why-discord-pinterest-moz-bleach...).

Even their github https://github.com/pinterest, elixir isn't even in their top programming languages.

It could be the secret sauce language kind of deal. Or they've moved away from it.

It is a pleasure to see you outside of elixirforum.

Re: WeWork IPO Shows It's the Most Magical Unicorn

#105

Post by mikeg8 »

ghobs91 wrote: post #51
frostyj wrote: post #3

Market will teach these companies a lesson

Right after their sleezeball CEO and all their VCs cash out, leaving small time investors holding the garbage at the end.

I’ve never understood this point of view. Shouldn’t every investor, regardless of scale, bear responsibility for their investments? If by small investors you mean regular employee 401Ks, controlled by the wealth management division of a bank, with a heavily diversified portfolio, that is still a risk the “investor” may be fine accepting. I don’t really feel bad for anyone losing money when they actively put it into a system of massive speculation.

Re: WeWork IPO Shows It's the Most Magical Unicorn

#106

Post by BIKESHOPagency »

I realize I'm probably a bit of a unicorn, but I've coworked in the same co-working office for over 8 years. The businesses in the office have changed and there has been some turn over in those years but 50% of us have stayed! Those of us who have stayed the past 8 years have cycled between self employed, and employed full-time, often years at a time for one company.

We live in a small town in Colorado that has never provided work opportunities in our field, but we've always been successful working remotely.

Small town co-working has provided a huge value for us: no commute, we're out of the house, camaraderie, friendship and support. Maybe this is an example of a profitable co-working.

I know that in these past 8 years the owner has done very little recruiting and the desks are always full.

Re: WeWork IPO Shows It's the Most Magical Unicorn

#107

Post by mikeg8 »

skewart wrote: post #83
kolbe wrote: post #37

What I don't get is how small some of these numbers are. Weren't some of the figures being tossed around valuing it at $40bn? And their revenues are in the low single digit billions. It's one thing to get sucked in by a company like Uber who does $50b+ in rides, and think how valuable they could be if they figured out how to earn a meaningful chunk of that pie, but WeWork earns virtually no money, and exists in one o…

The optimistic case for WeWork is that they have a shot to become an extremely powerful player in the office real estate market. The idea is that they could get to a place where most big companies looking for office space would prefer to do it from WeWork because it's better than leasing directly from a building owner. And most building owners would prefer to lease their space to WeWork because it's better than tryin…

Thanks for this thoughtful comment, it’s the most insightful one to me so far.

Re: WeWork IPO Shows It's the Most Magical Unicorn

#108

Post by BIKESHOPagency »

tomhoward wrote: post #69

I have a bit of knowledge of the co-working industry. I’m good friends with the founder of the first and long-dominant tech/creative co-working space in my Australian city, and I served on its advisory board in the past couple years, through what turned out to be a distressed sale of the business to its landlord, after it became insolvent and unsalvageable. There are several fundamental flaws with the concept that ma…

I realize I'm probably a bit of a unicorn, but I've coworked in the same co-working office for over 8 years. The businesses in the office have changed and there has been some turn over in those years but 50% of us have stayed! Those of us who have stayed the past 8 years have cycled between self employed, and employed full-time, often years at a time for one company.

We live in a small town in Colorado that has never provided work opportunities in our field, but we've always been successful working remotely.

Small town co-working has provided a huge value for us: no commute, we're out of the house, camaraderie, friendship and support. Maybe this is an example of a profitable co-working.

I know that in these past 8 years the owner has done very little recruiting and the desks are nearly always full.

Re: WeWork IPO Shows It's the Most Magical Unicorn

#109

Post by totoglazer »

elliekelly wrote: post #33
rossdavidh wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not this dad. My wife kept trying to get my 14-year old daughter interested, but so far she's not. I think, based on these three data points in my family, that I have pretty conclusive proof it's a not-quite-young-but-of-course-not-old-female demographic.

Pinterest has cornered the market for women who (1) are planning a wedding or (2) have a child under five in their family. And I don't just mean brides and mothers, but everyone involved with the wedding/baby shower/birthday party planning process: bridesmaids, mothers of the bride, future mother-in-laws, aunts, grandmothers, and godmothers. And of course everyone who's paid to be involved with those events uses pint…

Your gripe is what kills Pinterest for me. If you want an iota of information not in the recomposssed 6 times jpg you’re SOL. It drives me nuts every time I use it.

Re: WeWork IPO Shows It's the Most Magical Unicorn

#110

Post by tomhoward »

BIKESHOPagency wrote: post #108
tomhoward wrote: post #69

I have a bit of knowledge of the co-working industry. I’m good friends with the founder of the first and long-dominant tech/creative co-working space in my Australian city, and I served on its advisory board in the past couple years, through what turned out to be a distressed sale of the business to its landlord, after it became insolvent and unsalvageable. There are several fundamental flaws with the concept that ma…

I realize I'm probably a bit of a unicorn, but I've coworked in the same co-working office for over 8 years. The businesses in the office have changed and there has been some turn over in those years but 50% of us have stayed! Those of us who have stayed the past 8 years have cycled between self employed, and employed full-time, often years at a time for one company. We live in a small town in Colorado that has never…

> co-working has provided a huge value for us: no commute, we're out of the house, camaraderie, friendship and support. Maybe this is an example of a profitable co-working

Yep, sounds very familiar.

Our space was like that when it was the only one in town, and it was the go-to place for self-selecting people who wanted to connect with other like-minded folk.

But our city has four million people, and startups/freelancing became super-popular and demand for co-working shot up (our space actually had to turn many people away at its peak), but then the whole industry became fragmented, and our space (indeed, any space), stopped being the go-to place for "people like us".

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