WeWork IPO Shows It's the Most Magical Unicorn • Hacker News Board

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

#171

Post by narnianal » Thu, Aug 15, 2019, 9:28 PM UTC

nicodjimenez wrote: post #111

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…

WeWork is like Starbucks and McDonalds business wise. Their IP is all their manuals, their suppliers and financial backers. Strong brand. Lots of adjacent markets. Amazing business!

I think I've read on HN beofre that they literally do the McDonalds thing where they actually buy office space privately or through other corps and then rent it to WeWork for money. Not sure if this was debunked. Don't follow closely.

Personally, when I entered a WeWork for a meetup I felt it's interesting design etc, but it feels like it sucks out your soul. It's like comfy and cold at the same time. Premium Mediocre maybe is the right term for that, not sure.

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

#172

Post by projektfu » Thu, Aug 15, 2019, 11:33 PM UTC

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…

My feeling is it's an aspirational good, like a BMW. Many of the people starting these companies are not really serious and are just waiting for another ship to eventually come in. It's the new unpaid internship of the upper middle class.

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

#173

Post by themagician » Fri, Aug 16, 2019, 5:58 AM UTC

nradov wrote: post #135

themagician wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is that most people don’t know what they are doing. The 401(k) is the only retirement program we have. At the end of the day when companies go public and then go bust the money is often coming from the collective public in some way. You are right, it’s a very small detail. But it’s one of those cogs that turn while making the rich richer by extracting value from the public. The founder of this company is a…

In most 401(k) plans the default funds don't invest in IPOs. Most workers and retail investors have no exposure here.

Most don’t. Not directly. But you don’t need most, just enough.

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

#174

Post by cherrypepsi » Fri, Aug 16, 2019, 1:37 PM UTC

randomsearch wrote: post #129

When the recession hits (more controversially the bubble pops), I’m not sure what will happen to WeWork. I would guess it will collapse, as tenants leave and it can’t pay for its rental costs. But on the flip side, in a recession landlords become much more open to renegotiating terms, and more people freelance or start their own business when they lose their jobs. So it’s possible WeWork could somehow claw their way…

There's an interview to Neumann by BI where he talks about that exact same thing. Makes one wonder if they're betting it all on a recession for things to "work" (heh)

The interview, soft paywall: https://www.businessinsider.com/wework-ceo-adam-neumann-busi...

I don't like this pattern, more than VC funded startups they are more like QE funded startups, regurgitating your own devalued money as a favour. Uber comes to mind, too.

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

#175

Post by loceng » Tue, Aug 20, 2019, 8:04 PM UTC

adrianN wrote: post #165

loceng wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, so following the leading metric for your decision basing it on off of if they mostly run out of a "garage" is a terrible idea; adding the two Apple founders into the equation, assuming you have the opportunity to get to know them and their ideas and plans well enough, would be an important part to the equation of deciding where to work.

Only if you believe that you can distinguish lucky founders from normal founders with sufficient precision to beat the odds. Personally I wouldn't trust myself to do that.

Of course, you can only do what you're most comfortable with - which should depend on your understanding of as many pieces to the puzzle possible, that's how we understand risk/reward, and how we hopefully make calculated decisions.

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

#176

Post by loceng » Tue, Aug 20, 2019, 9:27 PM UTC

School-Cotton wrote: post #164

discodave wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I would absolutely not sign on to a company whose space is a garage. First of all, it signals precariousness and non-seriousness So you would have avoided Apple and Amazon then?

If they were in a literal garage and I could have gotten another job paying 300k or more in a real office with free food then yes, I definitely would have avoided them.

Of course you're allowed to choose your preferences and priorities, how you make decisions.

There are also of course very nice garages, attached to nice houses - and very talented people who can maximize the resources available to them at any moment because they have a very clear plan to understand the strategy, path they must take. Keeping costs low by reducing real estate costs is in part why fully decentralized companies exist and work so well - they can scale very efficiently, however I believe that fully decentralized in the long-term won't work due to limited fluidity; spatial organization is important if not critical in certain respects.