
Was WeWork Ever Going to Work? - pseudolus
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/04/nyregion/wework-Adam-Neumann.html
======
wpietri
This isn't the best article, but there's a point that I think is useful:

> What the ordinary person might interpret as a con game or sheer lunacy, the
> heavily credentialed investor, with his TED Talk understanding of things,
> will reliably regard as brilliant eccentricity.

When people hear about typical con games, like the Pigeon Drop [1], their
reaction is often, "Thank goodness I'm so smart I'll never fall for a con!"
But that's incorrect. Maybe I wouldn't fall for that con, but that just means
the con wasn't for me.

Things like Theranos and WeWork fooled people who were plenty smart. But they
are, like everybody, trying to model the world using 3 pounds of meat. It's
not enough. We take shortcuts. And all of those shortcuts have flaws.

One of our industry's collective flaws is a belief in the genius, that
revolutionary smart guy who's just so smartily smart that they see things the
ordinaries don't, and will therefore be very successful. But that leaves us
vulnerable to people who perform the tropes of genius. Hands up everybody
who's had to work with an "architect" like that.

Another is of course the genius entrepreneur, who has a grand vision to
transform the world. As we can see, investors just love that. They've been
trained to love it by all the "genius entrepreneur" stories that are generated
by finding somebody successful and then filling in the narrative mad-lib with
events from their lives. And of course, finding that "genius" entrepreneur
lets investors see themselves as geniuses of a different kind. It lets
investors justify their belief they deserve to be super rich.

Let's hope things like Uber and Theranos and WeWork put enough holes in that
myth that we'll stop being vulnerable to people who put on the genius outfit
and do the genius performance. Because personally, I've been tired of it for
years.

[1] [https://abc7news.com/news/vallejo-man-loses-$10000-in-
pigeon...](https://abc7news.com/news/vallejo-man-loses-$10000-in-pigeon-drop-
scam/801976/)

~~~
harryh
I think it's pretty unfair to lump Uber (which really has transformed the
world in a real way) with Theranos (outright fraud) and WeWork (possibly a
viable but semi boring business that got way over hyped).

~~~
nabdab
Uber didn’t transform the World. They offered cheaper taxis. Now wework
actually transformed the world by bringing cheaper and flashier rental office
space which has revolutionized the way most people use rental office space...
/s Though in truth, neither did anything of notice. They used VC to undercut
the market in a non-sustainable fashion.

~~~
thanatos_dem
Did you take a taxi any time before uber came along? Unless you’re in a major
city (NY, LA, London), or are somewhere like an airport, you’d need to call
them, potentially hours in advance in rural areas, and organize a pick up.
Knowing if you should tip or not was always confusing, the fares were
expensive, and you had no real way to address grievances against the driver,
unless they do something illegal and get pulled over.

Nowadays, almost every taxi company has an app, which emulates all the same
functionality as Uber. Uber’s way of changing the world was one of user
experience and logistics. Not the actual transportation, which as you call
out, existed long before.

~~~
wpietri
Sure. Uber definitely did better taxi dispatch. But if Kalanick had kept
working on Red Swoosh, does anybody really believe taxi dispatch today would
be just like it was in 2005?

I'd say no. The cab industry was already tracking vehicle GPS circa 2005:
[http://www.taxi-library.org/mccurdy.htm](http://www.taxi-
library.org/mccurdy.htm)

Google Maps Android launched in 2008. It doesn't take a genius to say, "What
if..." And people did. Like this 2010 paper about experiments with Java apps
to do taxi dispatch in Singapore:
[https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/dddc/21e65523932240164d2bb4...](https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/dddc/21e65523932240164d2bb4b1bb0fdac5479c.pdf)

So people are giving Uber credit for something that would have happened
anyhow. And they're doing that because Kalanick was the one most willing to
burn money and break laws, not because he was such a creative genius.

------
code4tee
WeWork could have been successful if they focused on the core business and
operated lean and mean. While they didn’t invent the co-working space model
there was certainly room to improve it.

However the company was just simply not run very well, was very unfocused on
all sorts of random side businesses/acquisitions, and was massively bloated in
terms of its team.

Ultimately it was a good idea poorly executed from a business standpoint. The
market has clearly turned (for the better most would say) in that people want
to see real businesses with real sustainable business models. Fruit water on
tap and glossy marketing materials don’t replace the core fundamentals of a
good business. It’s refreshing to see the market finally calling BS and
expecting more.

------
jklein11
I'm not buying the fact that co-working is an untenable business model. For
small businesses, there is overhead in signing a long term lease, making sure
that facilities are maintained, and that they are conducive to a productive
working environment. I also definitely see value in having a community that
spans different companies, as the mindshare must have benefits. From the
perspective of a consultant/freelancer, I can't think of a better way to learn
about potential clients' challenges and possible opportunities than having a
conversation at the water cooler with them.WeWork isn't the only co-working
space in town, but it has a tremendous amount of brand recognition in this
space.

I don't think WeWork was doomed from the start. I think their execution was
sloppy. I think they made some short-sighted financing decisions which they
are paying for now. I think they have a long uphill battle, but I do think
that there is something of value that they are providing.

~~~
idrios
I worked for a startup that was based on the east coast but trying to build
their presence on the west coast. We looked into a lot of options including
visiting several WeWork offices to look into having a virtual office or a
mailing address at the very least.

We wanted to use WeWork but it was too expensive to be practical for us, and
we ended up getting a deal with a local coworking space. I imagine this was
the case for most startups looking to start an office out of WeWork.

So I'm inclined to agree with you that the demand was there, but the execution
was poor.

------
Nursie
Not at those insane valuations, no.

The business model, at its core, is a fine one. But it's one that's already
out there, working fine in a slow, normal, boring way for companies like
Regus. I've used Regus spaces, they're fine. They're not cool, trendy startup
collab spaces with beanbags and baristas, but AFAICT they are actually more
conducive to real grown-up business use.

Maybe there is a market for a more startup-focused temporary office space
business. But it's not one that's going to shake the foundations of the world,
nor bring in 100x the investment for VCs.

~~~
jdm2212
Yeah, they just don't have much of a moat to allow them to command monopoly
rents. Whatever innovations they introduce, others can copy, and most
companies would just switch over to a cheaper provider once their WeWork lease
comes up.

------
calcsam
Not a WeWork fan, but why does it matter if Adam Neumann could be a branch
manager at Staples?

Steve Jobs was known for walking around Reed College barefoot in the snow, but
that didn't stop him & Woz from building Apple.

~~~
Jeriko
I got the impression that the author was arguing exactly against this kind of
equivalency. People can be unusual and also successful. This doesn't mean that
being unusual is a valid predictor of success. Also that its pretty ironic for
something that would be seen as a potential red flag for someone making a
relatively low risk decision (i.e. hiring a branch manager) would suddenly be
viewed as an asset by someone making multi-million dollar investments. I'm not
sure I agree with the premise that everyone is blinded by some "great man"
theory of innovation except for we street-wise low-middle class. But I feel
the point about the double standard is valid.

------
sunir
I will say two things. First it has been a real question whether WeWork made
any sense forever and it is a real business case that you can analyze
rationally and quantifiably.

Second this article is not that at all. It’s contribution was entirely in its
headline. The rest of the article is a high school essay of rhetorical filler
to meet the demand for anti-capitalist theatre.

While many would have the natural inclination to agree with the conclusion,
this article is not the best example of the argument unless you are tracking
the politics of society’s increasingly negative views of Silicon Valley.

Finally the New York Times style inspired me to write equally pretentiously.
How did I do? :)

------
jdm2212
> What the ordinary person might interpret as a con game or sheer lunacy, the
> heavily credentialed investor, with his TED Talk understanding of things,
> will reliably regard as brilliant eccentricity.

Most people are more scared of looking silly than they are excited about
getting rich. The handful who aren't occasionally make a bad investment
(Theranos, WeWork, etc.) but also a lot of them become centimillionaires and
billionaires.

I'm definitely in the "more scared of looking silly" category, but I like to
think I also have the self-awareness to recognize this as a character flaw,
and not broadcast it proudly and obliviously to the whole world in the NYT.

------
voisin
WeWork matched short duration assets to long duration liabilities. It was
incredibly anti-robust and never going to work.

~~~
harryh
Banks borrow short and lend long. It works out OK for them.

~~~
WalterSear
Banks have leverage. We Work does not: We Work can't rent out the same chair
to 20 people at once.

~~~
odyssey7
Maybe not 20, but I expect that the WeWork hot desk membership does this to an
extent. Remote workers don’t usually show up every day.

