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WeWork Is Cutting About 7% of Staff

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Re: WeWork Is Cutting About 7% of Staff

#61

Post by jasonlotito »

lowglow wrote: post #2

I guess I don't understand why any startup would pay 300-500/per desk. While I'm building I look to cut all expenses across the board and leave only the bare minimum required to function and create effectively. Can someone give an anecdote on when a shared workspace like this was beneficial to their startup's growth?

It also helps with hiring in city. Not everyone wants to commute out of a city, and not every company wants to pay city rates for nice offices. WeWork is a compromise. You can hire people who want to stay in the city for a much lower cost.

Re: WeWork Is Cutting About 7% of Staff

#62

Post by puranjay »

liquidise wrote: post #18

I'm surprised most of the comments here are on the merits of shared workspaces instead of the potential overstaffing of WeWork. They have opened a couple of campuses in Denver in the last couple of months, and i was surprised to see about a 2:1 company to WeWork staff ratio. I won't pretend to know the list of the staff's responsibilities, but i can say that often times they appear to be hanging out in the general ar…

I work out of a co-working space in India, the largest of its kind with 6 big offices across 5 cities.

It seems to have the same problem. Although my office is the "home" office of this company, it still has way too many employees of its own.

And I reckon they might be profitable, but I find that a lot of them aren't doing anything really.

I mean, do you really need 5 people just to handle your social media? Or do you need 4 people in one office just to handle billing?

Re: WeWork Is Cutting About 7% of Staff

#63

Post by driverdan »

lowglow wrote: post #2

I guess I don't understand why any startup would pay 300-500/per desk. While I'm building I look to cut all expenses across the board and leave only the bare minimum required to function and create effectively. Can someone give an anecdote on when a shared workspace like this was beneficial to their startup's growth?

There are plenty of benefits others have listed but here's a big one that could have a large financial payoff: networking. If you're working from home or a private office you're missing out on the huge networking potential a coworking space has. That network could result in sales, employees, funding, etc.

Re: WeWork Is Cutting About 7% of Staff

#64

Post by gphil »

cmdrfred wrote: post #52
redwood wrote: post #44

This company's valuation makes no sense to me. The brand is strong in NYC, sure. But really.

If they could deliver this at a larger scale and be able to reduce their prices it might make a little more sense. You can get an entire office for the price of a desk. WeWork Walnut St. Desk[0] - $450 Allegheny Ave Office[1] - $450 [0] https://www.wework.com/locations/philadelphia [1] https://philadelphia.craigslist.org/off/5595848731.html

Do you live in or are you at least familiar with Philly? This comparison is cherry-picking a WeWork the nicest area in the city and juxtaposing it with an office space in/near one of the worst neighborhoods. Of course the prices are going to be like this.

Re: WeWork Is Cutting About 7% of Staff

#65

Post by cylinder »

x0x0 wrote: post #56
tptacek wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is approximately the impression I have of the staff in the West Loop office as well. The place feels overstaffed.

In the wework at Market and 6, there's a bunch of staff too. Though they have I think 8 or 10 floors of the building. Of course, who knows what the staff do all day. The bathroom on our floor regularly runs out of paper towels or has overflowing garbage cans. Also, fwiw, I can't disrecommend WeWork strongly enough. * They let one of the two elevators in our building sit out of service for 6 weeks last year. I hope yo…

Wework flagship for two years. I realized when there the tenants were mostly pretty bad startups who were just blowing through VC and would never survive. Saw Weworks valuation to continue to skyrocket -- all they do is sublease! Ridiculous, and they'll lose more than half their tenants as soon as VC dries up.

The "offices" are pretty useless. You hear everyone around you all the time, and you have no privacy for conversations or phone calls. The modern decor just means lots of noise too - god forbid someone on your floor wear high heels, you'll hear them walking up and down the hardwood halls all day.

Re: WeWork Is Cutting About 7% of Staff

#66

Post by cylinder »

lowglow wrote: post #2

I guess I don't understand why any startup would pay 300-500/per desk. While I'm building I look to cut all expenses across the board and leave only the bare minimum required to function and create effectively. Can someone give an anecdote on when a shared workspace like this was beneficial to their startup's growth?

Posh startups with other people's money. Money doesn't have meaning to them.

Re: WeWork Is Cutting About 7% of Staff

#67

Post by cmdrfred »

gphil wrote: post #64
cmdrfred wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they could deliver this at a larger scale and be able to reduce their prices it might make a little more sense. You can get an entire office for the price of a desk. WeWork Walnut St. Desk[0] - $450 Allegheny Ave Office[1] - $450 [0] https://www.wework.com/locations/philadelphia [1] https://philadelphia.craigslist.org/off/5595848731.html

Do you live in or are you at least familiar with Philly? This comparison is cherry-picking a WeWork the nicest area in the city and juxtaposing it with an office space in/near one of the worst neighborhoods. Of course the prices are going to be like this.

I live 45 minutes from center city. Allegheny ave is not that bad and only about 15 minutes from the wework office. Its mostly art students from Moore and Temple in that particular block. Plus Id be proud to call that my office, its a cool space. Wework provides a service, I just personally only see value at that price in the extreme short term, something a larger economy of scale may rectify.

Re: WeWork Is Cutting About 7% of Staff

#68

Post by twunde »

lowglow wrote: post #2

I guess I don't understand why any startup would pay 300-500/per desk. While I'm building I look to cut all expenses across the board and leave only the bare minimum required to function and create effectively. Can someone give an anecdote on when a shared workspace like this was beneficial to their startup's growth?

I worked at General Assembly when it first came on the scene and did coworking. There were two major benefits. 1) people corrupting there would regularly help each other out and often do business with each other. 2) When investors came by to visit one company they would often visit others just because they were there.

Re: WeWork Is Cutting About 7% of Staff

#69

Post by cmdrfred »

davidjhall wrote: post #60
cmdrfred wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they could deliver this at a larger scale and be able to reduce their prices it might make a little more sense. You can get an entire office for the price of a desk. WeWork Walnut St. Desk[0] - $450 Allegheny Ave Office[1] - $450 [0] https://www.wework.com/locations/philadelphia [1] https://philadelphia.craigslist.org/off/5595848731.html

I don't know the costs for an office -- but WeWork provides the staff, internet, electricity, coffee, etc.

Certainly they provide a service. I guess they are the 'Hotel' of office space rentals and I'm thinking there might a huge market for the 'Motel' version at a lower price point. I bought a house to have an office because having that office rent cost makes a lot of projects I want to do not viable.
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