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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

#451

Post by jacob_rezi »

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.

I too studied economics. My company has benefited from that knowledge gained

Re: WeWork’s Adam Neumann Steps Down as CEO

#452

Post by andrewem »

x0x0 wrote: post #396
ryanwaggoner wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Definitely just another failed tech bro pump 'n dump scheme headed to the dustbin of history. I seriously doubt that. I think they're overvalued too, but I predict WeWork is still going to be around in another decade. There's clearly a ton of demand for what they provide.

I agree, but will any management still be there if they're worth $2-5B rather than $40 billion? Also, the strategy of segregating assets onto Adam's personal balance sheet looks like a bad idea now that he's no longer ceo.

Does putting assets onto Adam's balance sheet look like a bad idea for Adam, or for We? As with Enron, the way to understand the company's decision making is that in many particulars it was not trying to optimize its outcomes, it was trying to optimize the CEO's (and in Enron's case, the CFO's and maybe a couple others).

Re: WeWork’s Adam Neumann Steps Down as CEO

#453

Post by eclecticsceptic »

ryanwaggoner wrote: post #61
rconti wrote: post #45

The latest Slate Money podcast had a great segment savaging Neumann. https://slate.com/podcasts/slate-money/2019/09/slate-money-o...

Their criticism of just about anything rings hollow since two of the hosts basically hate just about everything associated with money and capitalism, despite their staggering ignorance of many corners of it. Their guests and Anna Szymanski are the only non-embarrassing parts of the show for me, but I still eventually just gave up and stopped listening.

I think you've got that backwards. Anna is an unabashed capitalist who refuses to criticise even the shadiest goings-on in finance, start-ups etc. Felix and Emily seem to have a good nose for nonsense, like wework.

Re: WeWork’s Adam Neumann Steps Down as CEO

#454

Post by [deleted] »

ahi wrote: post #444
moltensodium wrote: post #414

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At this point there is a non-zero and growing chance the company collapses completely. They have no plans or research or any other projects that are expected to make money, ever, and nobody seems interested in another round of fundraising. They will likely try to force the IPO through anyway at some sub $5B valuation, but even then it seems like they may not generate much interest after that cuckooville S1.

Some of their financing demands they IPO this year I think. Could have misread something though.

[deleted]

Re: WeWork’s Adam Neumann Steps Down as CEO

#455

Post by nickfromseattle »

jdhn wrote: post #409
nickfromseattle wrote: post #387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Business development, it turns out a degree isn't very important in succeeding in a technology company.

Re: WeWork’s Adam Neumann Steps Down as CEO

#456

Post by reilly3000 »

ryanwaggoner wrote: post #206
codesushi42 wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here, and only by reading the headlines. A WeWork recruiter reached out to me. I laughed out loud and added it to the list of companies I would never work for. Not only do they do nothing interesting, but they are apparently unethical as well. No doubt another failed tech bro pump 'n dump scheme headed to the dustbin of history.

Definitely just another failed tech bro pump 'n dump scheme headed to the dustbin of history. I seriously doubt that. I think they're overvalued too, but I predict WeWork is still going to be around in another decade. There's clearly a ton of demand for what they provide.

Agreed. The Saudi's via Softbank will install an experienced CEO and they will start operating effectively. I was skeptical about the whole thing, as somebody who worked out of a Regus office about 10 years ago the idea was not novel at all. That said, I see the notion of on-demand capacity in the physical world very similar to what makes cloud computing work: pay for what you need when you need it. With an increasingly remote work world, on-demand space can be purchased or reserved by big companies and well-funded startups, allowing for project-based teams to collaborate in-person. I'm not super optimistic about their prospects, but their backers have the resources to ensure a return on their investment, and they are most likely to do so.

Re: WeWork’s Adam Neumann Steps Down as CEO

#457

Post by IAmGraydon »

SirensOfTitan wrote: post #309
vegannet wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason WeWork is great is because investors are subsidising our memberships, just like Uber is cheap because investors are shovelling in cash. WeWork has the potential for profitability if you take away the ridiculousness but the ridiculousness _is_ WeWork: co-working spaces have existed for years, companies like IWG (Regus) offer the same as WeWork and they're profitable... because they don't have a full time ba…

The superfluous perks are a red herring, they’re not why WeWork doesn’t work. Regus filed for bankruptcy after the dotcom collapse for similar reasons WeWork is struggling: taking a bunch of long term leases and re-leasing them out as short term leases to economically vulnerable businesses is a recipe for disaster.

Everyone keeps parroting this same statement because they don’t really understand how commercial real estate works. First of all, there are many creative ways to exit a commercial lease. I won’t go into it, but do some research. Landlords would rather have a paying tenant in the space than go chase a bankrupt company in court. Second, they are charging several times the PSF rate they are paying to the landlords, which acts as a hedge against volatility. You pay a higher interest rate for higher risk credit - this is basically analogous. Third, there’s nothing stopping them from subleasing the space to larger, lower risk tenants if the market calls for it.

Source: I work in commercial real estate.

Re: WeWork’s Adam Neumann Steps Down as CEO

#458

Post by moltensodium »

DebtDeflation wrote: post #44
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…

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…

Adam seems to be the scapegoat, somewhat justified of course, but the bigger problem of this company being an obvious scam with no way to make money has not been addressed.

Re: WeWork’s Adam Neumann Steps Down as CEO

#459

Post by zone411 »

pb7 wrote: post #391
zone411 wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe this will cheer you up: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/20/business/liberal-arts-ste...

A feel-good piece at best, misleading at worst.

I pretty much agree but there is this line "By age 40, the average salary of all male college graduates was $111,870, and social science and history majors earned $131,154 — an average that is lifted, in part, by high-paying jobs in management, business and law." So the GP's prospects are probably better than they look to them right now.
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