Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

WeWork’s Adam Neumann Steps Down as CEO

wsj.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

221–230 of 551 posts

Re: WeWork’s Adam Neumann Steps Down as CEO

#221

Post by kevstev »

jcims wrote: post #192

Can anyone explain why we're seeing so much WeWork content in the news? Is it because they have so many customers in the tech industry?

It has a lot of echoes of the .com boom, with a modern twist- the pitch has changed a bit, its not just about losing money at scale, its about changing the world while doing so, with a nostalgic dose of delusion- saying their potential market is the entire real estate market worth trillions of dollars.

Add in a self dealing CEO, and the human attraction to watching disasters unfold, and here we are.

Re: WeWork’s Adam Neumann Steps Down as CEO

#222

Post by ThrustVectoring »

minikites wrote: post #204
ThrustVectoring wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It isn't, corporate leadership is effectively a tournament and CEO and executive salaries are the prize for winning it. The point of having a high prize is to get a lot of people to compete for it, not to reward the winners for the effort they've put it (which may only be slightly more than the runner up, while the reward is several times what the runner up gets). Like, do you think the best golfer in the PGA tournam…

I don't think your analogy proves the point you think it does and is in fact a pretty great argument for why CEOs should be paid less and taxed more. A large part of the success of both athletes and CEOs is up to circumstances and chance, as well as the other competitors who may be deficient in a number of ways. Being less incompetent than your peers doesn't mean the same thing as being competent.

Pay isn't just about giving people what they deserve. It's also about providing the incentives that create the behavior you want. You can do that through piece-work compensation, but that's extremely hard to manage for executives (and knowledge workers, too, but that's a separate discussion).

If your workers aren't risk-adverse, then a tournament is exactly as efficient as a piece-work compensation scheme for convincing them to put in effort. The proof is a bit more involved than I'm willing to digest for a HN comment, but there's a full paper you can read about this here: http://faculty.smu.edu/Millimet/classes/eco7321/papers/lazea...

Anyhow, what all this means is that providing a prize to top performers means you can get a ton of effort, training, and work from people competing for it, and you don't have to incur the expense of monitoring the inputs into performance or quantifying the overall performance rendered. You only have to care about the rank-ordering of performance.

Re: WeWork’s Adam Neumann Steps Down as CEO

#223

Post by JackFr »

LeanderK wrote: post #196
an_opabinia wrote: post #182

Not to generalize, but if you relied on Hacker News for recruiting you could wind up in all sorts of wonky, dubious or failed companies. Like people were such sweethearts for Juul and Alt Schools. They’re also really skeptical of Google, which for all its faults is, without a doubt, the single best deal for employees in the history of the world, at least since the time that anyone was legally or culturally allowed to…

this reads like a rant but I am not sure what it's ranting about. I've read it three times but I am still not sure whats going on. People having opinions? I read a lot of great advice (also about recruting) on HN and I don't really get why I should be concerned. Also starts with "Not to generalize" but then has a really wonky generalization.

Well sometimes when you're in an echo chamber it's tough to tell. Everyone just seems ... right.

On the other hand, even if there is a diversity of opinions within comments, it's very easy to self-curate with a heavy dose of confirmation bias. So while HN can be a valuable source of information, it's useful to remain skeptical and avoid self-congratulations.

Re: WeWork’s Adam Neumann Steps Down as CEO

#224

Post by tqkxzugoaupvwqr »

jcims wrote: post #192

Can anyone explain why we're seeing so much WeWork content in the news? Is it because they have so many customers in the tech industry?

There is a lot of drama unfolding. “We” planned to IPO, its last evaluation was $47 billion. After outsiders reported irregularities its evaluation plummeted quickly to $10 billion and the IPO is postponed until October, but probably shelved for much longer. We’s CEO knew the bubble was about to burst and sold his shares pre-IPO for $700 million.

I recommend:

https://www.profgalloway.com/wewtf (from Aug 16)

https://www.profgalloway.com/wewtf-part-deux (from Sep 20)

Re: WeWork’s Adam Neumann Steps Down as CEO

#225

Post by ImprovedSilence »

jonknee wrote: post #36
whoisjuan wrote: post #34

This is some dense shit. I can't imagine how working for WeWork feels like, right now. I have worked for companies where all the employees were eagerly waiting for the day the company will go public. It was seen as a pivotal moment both financially and professionally. In any rational world that's a landmark moment. A significant milestone for founders, investors and early employees. For WeWork it has been the complet…

WeWork has been an obvious fuckup to even casual observers for years, if people inside the company couldn't see this I really don't know what to say.

I can see how their leadership is a bit bush league and they are potentially overvalued, but it’s not obvious to me that their basic value proposition sucks or is that far off the mark.

Re: WeWork’s Adam Neumann Steps Down as CEO

#226

Post by seisvelas »

gwbas1c wrote: post #217
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.

> but I predict WeWork is still going to be around in another decade. There's clearly a ton of demand for what they provide There's also a TON of rent-a-desk places. The big questions are: - 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.) - What's WeWork's secret sauce or first mover advantage?

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.

Re: WeWork’s Adam Neumann Steps Down as CEO

#227

Post by kelnos »

ThrustVectoring wrote: post #179
onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm interested about the buildings. A lot of people bullish on WeWork say -- "Oh, they'll just walk away from the leases. Each lease is owned by a different subsidiary. That subsidiary will just file bankruptcy. Problem solved. They'll just cut the losers, and turn up the dial on the profitable buildings." Adam got a $750M loan from WeWork, right? I'm assuming he used that loan to secure more loans to buy the buildin…

>"Oh, they'll just walk away from the leases. Each lease is owned by a different subsidiary. That subsidiary will just file bankruptcy. Problem solved. They'll just cut the losers, and turn up the dial on the profitable buildings." "Each lease is owned by a different subsidiary" doesn't help you that much against the lessors, they'll either charge you more or demand signed guarantees from the parent corporation. Coun…

In this case, the lessors have gotten some good things out of the deal: if We walks away from the leases, the owners of the buildings get to keep all the improvements We has made.

Re: WeWork’s Adam Neumann Steps Down as CEO

#228

Post by josefresco »

moate wrote: post #149
tw1010 wrote: post #115

Could someone explain to me why this is happening? Is it a metoo situation?

Here's a good read: https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/9/23/20879656/wework-mess-ex... Short answer: No, it's not a sexual assault thing. It's a "shady self-dealing business" thing

Sort of true ...there was an allegation made and lawsuit: https://www.vox.com/2018/10/12/17968668/wework-employee-sexu...

Re: WeWork’s Adam Neumann Steps Down as CEO

#229

Post by cj »

gwbas1c wrote: post #217
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.

> but I predict WeWork is still going to be around in another decade. There's clearly a ton of demand for what they provide There's also a TON of rent-a-desk places. The big questions are: - 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.) - What's WeWork's secret sauce or first mover advantage?

>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 operating independent coworking spaces? The answer to this question isn't obvious to me.

WeWork is also very similar to Uber in the sense that you also need a very effective "on the ground" team managing operations of each individual location, doing tours for prospective renters, managing upkeep + maintenance for the space, etc.

Re: WeWork’s Adam Neumann Steps Down as CEO

#230

Post by cj »

seisvelas wrote: post #226
gwbas1c wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but I predict WeWork is still going to be around in another decade. There's clearly a ton of demand for what they provide There's also a TON of rent-a-desk places. The big questions are: - 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.) - What's WeWork's secret sauce or first mover advantage?

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).
Post reply on HN