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WeWork’s Adam Neumann Steps Down as CEO

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Re: WeWork’s Adam Neumann Steps Down as CEO

#401

Post by october_sky »

rootusrootus wrote: post #393
john_moscow wrote: post #31

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…

> slow 30-year-old companies like Regus Unless I am completely misunderstanding the value of WeWork, this ship seems to have already sailed. At least locally, Regus has offerings that are substantially the same in price and features to what WeWork has.

Also, smaller, regional real estate companies are doing this (generic co-working spaces) with empty office space, often on the ground floor. I visited a startup at one such location and was impressed with it. It's a strategy to capitalize on unused assets.

Re: WeWork’s Adam Neumann Steps Down as CEO

#402

Post by jwc1 »

rainyMammoth wrote: post #184
dehrmann wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> to prevent shares from flooding the market on day 1 These are common, but I don't think they apply to all share classes, so the big boys are free to get their money out.

usually it doesn't apply to the "Big" VCs and founders. So they are quietly able to get out before the stock crashes a couple months later.

Could you share some examples of that occurring? To my knowledge, a lockup period is almost always a standard requirement from the underwriter (on any larger IPO), and in some states is even required as part of their Blue Sky Laws.

If a founder/VC wants to get out before the IPO, they usually just do so on the secondary market. Example: Benchmark cashing out a portion of their Uber stake to SoftBank pre-IPO.

https://www.sec.gov/fast-answers/answerslockuphtm.html

Re: WeWork’s Adam Neumann Steps Down as CEO

#403

Post by csmiller »

88840-8855 wrote: post #253
ngngngng wrote: post #17

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 must say, I am jealous. It seems a bit unfair to me how computer engineers are getting hired and paid so well, while my economics degree is useless and I have to fight like crazy to get a job that pays WAY less than engineers get. Honestly, I studied economics because I wanted a job that pays well - that was one of the key criteria - and now I am standing with little money and a job I hate. It sucks.

My degree is in Econ and I work as a software engineer.

Re: WeWork’s Adam Neumann Steps Down as CEO

#404

Post by vxNsr »

tgtweak wrote: post #369
alainchabat wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what are the other companies you'll never work for?

Hijacking this spot to highlight newrelic as a company I used to evangelize and now will go out of my way to recommend against (I consult startups as a virtual CTO). They used to have a brilliant offering (Application level monitoring with all associated hosts included) then they deprecated the host monitoring and jacked the price up on every one of my clients while simultaneously threatening them to collect based on…

> newrelic

Seems they're trading at 2x their IPO, and they were at 3x a few months ago... Did something happen in 2018 that made them huge for a bit? or was it just the rest of the world discovering cloud?

Re: WeWork’s Adam Neumann Steps Down as CEO

#405

Post by lancesells »

cj wrote: post #230
seisvelas wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The advantage is similar to that of a large gym chain - you can pay more to get a membership that's valid at all the WeWorks in the entire world. This is great for people who regularly travel between many large cities.

I suspect the majority of WeWork's revenue comes from people working in the same location day in, day out. Same with gym chains. People sign up for Planet Fitness because the nearest location is the most convenient, not because they plan to visit multiple locations over the course of a year (not to say there aren't people taking advantage of the multi-city aspect, just that they aren't the typical customer).

I get your point and agree but I think gyms make money from people not being there at all. If every gym member showed up multiple times a week it would be like going to the gym the week after New Year's.

Re: WeWork’s Adam Neumann Steps Down as CEO

#406

Post by paggle »

j_shi wrote: post #288
paggle wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think they will shut down WeLive. The entire premise of WeWork, and WeLive, is that they can sell you more than real estate -- they can sell you a "tribe." There are so many reports in recent years about growing social isolation and loneliness, that if something can be successfully packaged into a simulacrum of a community, it will be a hot item indeed. That's the only way WeWork can justify its stratospheric…

This is the bull case for We that justifies a stratospheric valuation: it is the extranational life infra and connection market maker for the otherwise hyperalienated worker of tomorrow -- where corporations have surpassed "legacy" social and political units of organization and identity. Where the valuation came down to earth was when public investors evaluated We as an incrementally better office rental company, and…

“Tribe as product” already exists, most successfully in professional sports teams: “I am a die hard Eagles fan.”

Re: WeWork’s Adam Neumann Steps Down as CEO

#407

Post by JJMcJ »

munificent wrote: post #240
cj wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>What's the benefit to a large corporation doing this instead of lots of small companies? (The economies of scale need to outweigh the large corporate overhead.) I like this way of thinking. WeWork isn't doing anything "new" - coworking spaces have existed for years. What's the upside of having a giant corporation owning all coworking spaces, versus having many small and independent small businesses running and opera…

> What's the upside of having a giant corporation owning all coworking spaces, versus having many small and independent small businesses running and operating independent coworking spaces? Advantage to customers? Likely minimal. Advantage to the company itself: economies of scale and, likely more importantly, lack of competition allowing them to increase prices. The very clear trend across all sectors is that compani…

> lack of competition allowing them to increase prices.

There is so much commercial real estate that it's hard to imagine them in any kind of a monopoly situation.

Re: WeWork’s Adam Neumann Steps Down as CEO

#408

Post by rossdavidh »

609venezia wrote: post #267
DebtDeflation wrote: post #106

CNBC reporting his Class B and C shares will be further reduced from 10:1 to 3:1 voting rights, so he no longer will control the majority of votes. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/24/wework-ceo-adam-neumann-is-e...

Wow. That's a surprise. I wonder what kind of stick they had to beat him into that?

Well, if he leaves now, it's not as if he's going off to a terrible fate. He's been pretty well-paid. If he gets an IPO out of it someday, he'll get even more money, but if he doesn't, he gets to step off the burning ship.

Or, to put it another way, he doesn't have to go through firing all of those people that he hired when he was pumping the company up to ginormous size. I think perhaps the fun part of running WeWork was behind him, regardless of how it turns out.

Re: WeWork’s Adam Neumann Steps Down as CEO

#409

Post by jdhn »

nickfromseattle wrote: post #387
88840-8855 wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I must say, I am jealous. It seems a bit unfair to me how computer engineers are getting hired and paid so well, while my economics degree is useless and I have to fight like crazy to get a job that pays WAY less than engineers get. Honestly, I studied economics because I wanted a job that pays well - that was one of the key criteria - and now I am standing with little money and a job I hate. It sucks.

I've been very fortunate to grow up in Seattle, one of the fastest growing cities in the US. My friends have geology and psychology degrees working in technology companies making $130 - $180k/year as non-developers.

Geology? What does that person do in a tech company?

Re: WeWork’s Adam Neumann Steps Down as CEO

#410

Post by tudelo »

ryandrake wrote: post #118
tudelo wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even FANG companies try to play this game (our stock will appreciate more, our company is more volatile the upside is way higher, etc...)

I’ve heard the opposite pitch from FANG recruiters: Our stock is pretty stable and/or appreciates modestly. But if you don’t believe me we are a public company so you can sell on day one. Unlike those startups that are just offering pieces of paper with promises of riches on them. Maybe they’re just good at tailoring their messages. They look at me and see an old guy so they bring out the “stable liquidity” pitch.

This could be the case, I figured they were trying to spin some sort of message to me given my age.
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