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WeWork’s Adam Neumann Steps Down as CEO

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121–130 of 551 posts

Re: WeWork’s Adam Neumann Steps Down as CEO

#121

I'm so glad I read hacker news. I almost took a job at WeWork just 2 months ago with a recruiter working very hard to convince me I'd be rich when they IPO. Now I'm at a much smaller startup called Weave which is a really phenomenal place to work. I didn't discover until recently that it's also a YCombinator company. edit: to clarify, hacker news has been extremely skeptical of WeWork for some time, due to this, I wa…

I also dodged this bullet two months ago. They were hiring like crazy in Seattle. Thanks HN!

Insane. This story is number one on hn for me and right below it in number two is https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21062231

> WeWork, Bankers Have Discussed Laying Off One-Third of Workforce (theinformation.com)

If you, the reader, have an offer from WeWork, I suggest you ask for a bigger paycheck (like real money, not funny money) for all this uncertainty.

Re: WeWork’s Adam Neumann Steps Down as CEO

#122
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because they are cosplaying as a tech company.

I guess that's how you get those SoftBank billions.

Only thing missing is a plan to get as much of these billions out of the company into your own pocket then, I guess. Not that stupid from a purely self-serving perspective. Ignores every aspect of corporate governance and business ethics, so. Not that SoftBank seems to care if they can get an IPO.

Re: WeWork’s Adam Neumann Steps Down as CEO

#123
post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WeWork is basically a real estate company. Why would they need a data science engineer?

Data allows people to make more informed decisions. You don’t need to be a tech company to benefit from a data science department.

You do need data, though. And if you don't have a lot of customers, or a lot of skus, or a lot of transactions -- you probably don't have a lot of data.

Re: WeWork’s Adam Neumann Steps Down as CEO

#124

I had concerns earlier this year when I interviewed at WeWork—which was the worst interview experience I’ve ever had. I applied for a data science role. The first two hours of the on-site were painful—they seemed to be asking questions tailored to be outside my experience. The third interviewer came into the room and said, “I, uh, just looked at your resume and I have to ask, why do you want to be a backend engineer?…

WeWork is basically a real estate company. Why would they need a data science engineer?

to be fair "data scientist" means different things to different companies, and for some may be just synonymous with "business analyst" but sounds cooler

Re: WeWork’s Adam Neumann Steps Down as CEO

#125

Well, corporate governance was one of the main factors why the market refused to accept anything close to their last private valuation, so this makes sense. Note that they desperately need the public money before the end of December in order to avoid running out of cash [0]. My bet is that they will now try to remarket We as a shareholder-controlled company, will maybe even eliminate the multi-class stock structure i…

There was an article yesterday where Softbank was saying that they think they can renegotiate those LOCs to go forward even if there is no IPO this year. They might end up being a lot smaller and have worse terms for We though. I wouldn't be surprised if pushing Adam out was the first demand the banks made in that renegotiation. Softbank wants to delay the IPO now because it would mean a massive writedown of their in…

I think it is clear they have to write it down anyway in any reasonable accounting.

Re: WeWork’s Adam Neumann Steps Down as CEO

#127
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a unicorn's VP-operations try to convince me that my job-offer isn't below market - I should be valuing their stock at 10-100x the valuation used in their most recent round (a few months ago), because this company is sure to become the next big thing.

That's disgusting. It should be illegal to mislead people like this. Employees aren't like A16z, they're not getting preferred shares and their primary source of income isn't likely to be investing in corps. Stuff like this can ruin people's lives.

It is illegal, which is why you'll never see them do it in writing.

Re: WeWork’s Adam Neumann Steps Down as CEO

#129
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WeWork is basically a real estate company. Why would they need a data science engineer?

Because they are cosplaying as a tech company.

The email I received after applying for a job many months ago:

“Thanks so much for taking the time and interest in applying to WeWork Global Technology. Your application has been received and we will review it as soon as possible.

Once we've had a chance to review we'll be in touch on possible next steps, thanks again for the time!

Regards, WeWork Global Technology”

Re: WeWork’s Adam Neumann Steps Down as CEO

#130
post #11

You've got to wonder what kind of a person is it that can get so far in building a successful behemoth like this but at the same time is able to seriously put forward ideas like becoming President of the world or asking management to cut 20% of the workforce yearly

Sociopaths, and not the chaotic good kind.
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