WeWork chases new financing as cash crunch looms • Hacker News Board

Re: WeWork chases new financing as cash crunch looms

#11

Post by oroup » Fri, Oct 11, 2019, 3:35 PM UTC

joshstrange wrote: post #2

Does anyone here on HN use WeWork spaces and enjoy them? I'm not suggesting they are bad, I honestly don't know. Ignoring the business model, the CEO, the failed IPO, do YOU or do you not enjoy that actual offering of WeWork?

Before we sold, we had WeWork offices in Denver and NY and used a similar competitor in Austin. They worked great and we were happy with them. But they were also a commodity and we chose based on price and lack of lock-in.

Re: WeWork chases new financing as cash crunch looms

#12

Post by tnolet » Fri, Oct 11, 2019, 3:37 PM UTC

joshstrange wrote: post #2

Does anyone here on HN use WeWork spaces and enjoy them? I'm not suggesting they are bad, I honestly don't know. Ignoring the business model, the CEO, the failed IPO, do YOU or do you not enjoy that actual offering of WeWork?

I don’t work in one but have visited three of them here in Berlin quite recently for meetings. The one in Friedrichshafen on the Spree is pretty nice. Great view.

The other ones more in Mitte had way too much of a semi hipster hotel lobby feel. Everyone was just too fashionable and cool for my taste.

Re: WeWork chases new financing as cash crunch looms

#13

Post by jekrb » Fri, Oct 11, 2019, 3:41 PM UTC

joshstrange wrote: post #2

Does anyone here on HN use WeWork spaces and enjoy them? I'm not suggesting they are bad, I honestly don't know. Ignoring the business model, the CEO, the failed IPO, do YOU or do you not enjoy that actual offering of WeWork?

I used to work for a company that rented a WeWork space to meet with clients in NYC. I only opted to work out of it once or twice, for a change of scenery from my typical office. I think the location was the main perk, since I then got to spend a day in NYC.

Working fully remote now and I enjoy that much more than being in any office setting.

Re: WeWork chases new financing as cash crunch looms

#14

Post by hn_throwaway_99 » Fri, Oct 11, 2019, 3:42 PM UTC

remarkEon wrote: post #8

sasper wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's been fantastic for our fast-growing SaaS startup. We've been able to spin up offices in 4 international cities in the last 18 months with very few issues, and our teams are productive and happy with the spaces. I manage one of the new offices and have LOVED the responsiveness of the local WeWork team, the facilities, the infrastructure, and it's lightyears better than the previous office we were occupying. I don…

It seems like the value that they are offering is just outsourced-office-management then. Am I wrong in thinking that? It's hard for me to parse what WeWork was "trying" to become. A real estate company that manages offices? An office management company that also does real estate?

That's kind of exactly the point. IMO there are a lot of unicorns out there that have pretty decent business models (Uber/Lyft, WeWork, delivery services, etc.) The problem is they are probably worth much less than their investors paid for them, because everyone is discovering that once the VC subsidies go away after the "growth at all cost" mentality, these are actually pretty low margin businesses that don't warrant their "tech" valuations.

Re: WeWork chases new financing as cash crunch looms

#15

Post by youngtaff » Fri, Oct 11, 2019, 3:46 PM UTC

xwdv wrote: post #10

Can’t wait to see WeWork crumble. If they had done an IPO I was hoping to open up a short position. If WeWork does run out of cash, I’ll be pulling money out from my tech stocks and holding cash for a while.

Don't understand your linkage to tech stocks…

WeWork are a property company

Re: WeWork chases new financing as cash crunch looms

#16

Post by rrdharan » Fri, Oct 11, 2019, 3:47 PM UTC

joshstrange wrote: post #2

Does anyone here on HN use WeWork spaces and enjoy them? I'm not suggesting they are bad, I honestly don't know. Ignoring the business model, the CEO, the failed IPO, do YOU or do you not enjoy that actual offering of WeWork?

Turns out most of us enjoy any exchange in which we receive goods whose value far exceeds what we pay for them.

Same reason I love cheap ride share trips[1] and NYC ferry rides[2]. I'd probably really enjoy winning the mega millions jackpot with a $5 ticket too (though perhaps not? [3]).

[1] https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/zmjew8/were-all-killing-u...

[2] https://ny.curbed.com/2019/3/28/18285731/nyc-ferry-swimming-...

[3] https://time.com/4176128/powerball-jackpot-lottery-winners/

Re: WeWork chases new financing as cash crunch looms

#17

Post by Pwntastic » Fri, Oct 11, 2019, 3:48 PM UTC

non-paywalled link: http://archive.is/g1g6E

Re: WeWork chases new financing as cash crunch looms

#18

Post by AgloeDreams » Fri, Oct 11, 2019, 3:50 PM UTC

joshstrange wrote: post #2

Does anyone here on HN use WeWork spaces and enjoy them? I'm not suggesting they are bad, I honestly don't know. Ignoring the business model, the CEO, the failed IPO, do YOU or do you not enjoy that actual offering of WeWork?

Quite love the space but it suffers from the too-little-too-much paradox. It costs too much for casual use (compared to like a starbucks) but costs reasonable amounts for hardcore use (compared to say, getting a larger apartment) and the gains in QOL are massive over working from home. It's a pretty great place to work..that likely costs more to run than they charge.

Re: WeWork chases new financing as cash crunch looms

#19

Post by sasper » Fri, Oct 11, 2019, 3:51 PM UTC

rrdharan wrote: post #16

joshstrange wrote: post #2

Does anyone here on HN use WeWork spaces and enjoy them? I'm not suggesting they are bad, I honestly don't know. Ignoring the business model, the CEO, the failed IPO, do YOU or do you not enjoy that actual offering of WeWork?

Turns out most of us enjoy any exchange in which we receive goods whose value far exceeds what we pay for them. Same reason I love cheap ride share trips[1] and NYC ferry rides[2]. I'd probably really enjoy winning the mega millions jackpot with a $5 ticket too (though perhaps not? [3]). [1] https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/zmjew8/were-all-killing-u... [2] https://ny.curbed.com/2019/3/28/18285731/nyc-ferry-swimming…

WeWork is the most expensive option in our city for managed offices, by a large margin. It's not cheap.

Re: WeWork chases new financing as cash crunch looms

#20

Post by lordnacho » Fri, Oct 11, 2019, 3:54 PM UTC

Perhaps someone in the property business can illuminate something for me.

I read somewhere that WeWork runs each site as a separate business. Can this really be true? It would seem to allow them to let each entity go bankrupt, which doesn't seem to be a sensible thing for the landlord to want to expose himself to. Sure he gets the building back, but you'd think there's then no advantage to renting it out to WeWork, since despite being a large entity they can just default on you anyway?