41–50 of 183 posts
Paywall . . .
https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/wework-a-20-billion-startup...
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Earlier quoted context omitted.
Comparing WeWork to traditional office landlord is like comparing Starbucks to Dunkin' Donut. Please don't go to Starbucks because its coffee is better or cheaper (it's neither), but as a lifestyle choice. Similarly, people don't go to WeWork because they need a desk.
Your metaphor is ridiculous. Plenty of people prefer Starbucks coffee to DD, claiming that going to Starbucks is a "lifestyle choice" in 2017 is absurd. People go to Starbucks because it has products they like, primarily a variety of coffee drinks that include milk, cream, sugar, or other flavorings. Comparing Starbucks to DD is a perfectly appropriate thing to do, as is comparing WeWork to Boston Properties is a rea…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I went to WeWork just because I needed a few month-to-month desks quickly. WeWork has excellent execution but I don't think of them as a lifestyle or luxury brand. If someone else can provide me the same ballpark product for 20% less then I would likely switch. There's a lot of room for competitors to move into the market.
It's called working from home, and it's a lot more than 20% less.
"Boston Properties Inc., the country’s largest publicly traded office landlord, owns five times the square footage that WeWork manages and has a market capitalization of $19 billion." This seems to me to be a pretty big warning sign that the company is overvalued.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Comparing WeWork to traditional office landlord is like comparing Starbucks to Dunkin' Donut. Please don't go to Starbucks because its coffee is better or cheaper (it's neither), but as a lifestyle choice. Similarly, people don't go to WeWork because they need a desk.
I went to WeWork just because I needed a few month-to-month desks quickly. WeWork has excellent execution but I don't think of them as a lifestyle or luxury brand. If someone else can provide me the same ballpark product for 20% less then I would likely switch. There's a lot of room for competitors to move into the market.
I only knew WeWork by name and didn't know much about it, after this thread, I googled a bit and their Twitter page is full of meme-level motivational images(Always be hustlin' signs, dogs at work), they are definitely trying to appeal to a specific audience here.
I share the sentiment of others in this thread, it looks to me like they are leveraging real estate to capture the trendy piece of the market.
Their latest offering(as it seems from their Twitter feed) is a wellness/fitness center called "Rise by We", as described on their feed: "a holistic wellness community crafted to enliven your spirit". Judging from that I wouldn't be surprised if their next bet is the next 'W hotels' of conferences/events where they can obtain a share in bigger companies events budget.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Your metaphor is ridiculous. Plenty of people prefer Starbucks coffee to DD, claiming that going to Starbucks is a "lifestyle choice" in 2017 is absurd. People go to Starbucks because it has products they like, primarily a variety of coffee drinks that include milk, cream, sugar, or other flavorings. Comparing Starbucks to DD is a perfectly appropriate thing to do, as is comparing WeWork to Boston Properties is a rea…
Coffee in general is a lifestyle choice. Not disagreeing with you just saying that in my opinion everything about coffee is lifestyle.
Many people, including the author, skip the more interesting point in favor of the lazy critique: WeWork is not being valued by its investors as an office rental company. It's made the case that it is a business services marketplace, selling vendors' insurance and HR and legal and servers to as large as swath of the small business sector as it can grab with its fancy offices. It wants to own the app store for enterpr…
If this is what WeWork is all about, then buying / leasing real estate worth hundreds of millions is a rather convoluted way of going about it.
WeWork needs to go prove itself by surviving the next downturn. I believe most of WeWork's customers are other startups who valuations are fueled by large rounds of VC investment. This capital tends to dry out during a downturn, however WeWork will still be saddled with long term leases during this period. I wonder what their strategy is to ride out a period of low capital raise for startups.
Their rent is just too high to capture the frugal companies who'll be the survivors of a poor market; lowering prices might save them, but I don't know how well their model accounts for this.