
What people actually do at WeWork - wallflower
http://www.esquire.com/lifestyle/money/a14443776/wework-sriracha-is-for-closers/
======
munin
It seems like articles about WeWork take one of two tacks:

1\. Isn't this "gig economy" thing weird? Isn't it strange that people don't
have stable long term employment? What's up with that? Is it good?

2\. Look at these weird people trying to make dating apps for dogs. This is so
weird. Instead of working in a trading or ad shop and getting drunk at 3, they
work for a tiny "internet company" and get drunk at 3. The sacrilege!

This seems to be a mix of both, though the article is definitely not trying to
paint millennial entrepreneurs in a positive light, you can tell by the choice
of focusing on a GS alumni.

I do think that anyone who complains about the WeWork aesthetic or whatever
should try to rent their own short term office space (that isn't WeWork). It's
fucking grim. You wind up in some ancient building with spongy floors, dodgy
elevators, and signs in the bathrooms about how the pipes are bad so please
basically don't flush anything. Or in a strip mall above a dentists office. Or
the attic of a converted condo.

The WeWork goal seems to be to provide some space with decent amenities for a
slight premium. What's wrong with that? Maybe their locations will vanish in a
puff of smoke when demand dries up, but no one's asking you to invest your
money in the future of WeWork. Would you go to a new restaurant opening and
say "well yeah the food is good but most restaurants fail"? Who cares! Eat the
food. Enjoy it while it's here.

~~~
tptacek
We were in WeWork in Chicago --- there's 3 of them here, we were in West Loop
--- for about a year. We left and rented an office, maybe 1100sqft?, about a 7
minute walk away. It has parking, relative (to WeWork) quiet, high ceilings, a
kitchen, 2 private bathrooms, and conference rooms we don't need to reserve in
a weird app or barter with friends for/with. We're 4 people (in this office).
We pay less per person than we did at WeWork.

WeWork is useful! I think it gets a bad rap (though the atmosphere and the
general vibe of the clientele probably does not).

But unless you're in SFBA or Manhattan, office space is just not that
expensive. As soon as you're making payroll, it's pretty insignificant. If I
start from 1-2 people again, I'll probably consider WeWork again. But I'll get
out of WeWork much faster next time, too.

~~~
abawany
I have used Regus. Very economical, clean, and professional with small private
offices. Given the price, for our needs it was perfect.

~~~
jdavis703
I worked in a Regus facility. It got the job done, but it just felt extremely
corporate and uninspiring, especially when I compare it to WeWork. If you're a
solo entrepreneur, or small team it's really nice being able to have the perks
you'd get in a bigger firm's office space.

~~~
usaphp
Regus has converted many of its offices to a new modern style and call it
“spaces”: [https://www.spacesworks.com](https://www.spacesworks.com)

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GreaterFool
> The lavatories at the WeWork at 524 Broadway in Manhattan, incidentally, are
> terrific—enclosed stalls with clever toile wallpaper featuring a repeating
> print of surveillance cameras partially obscured by roses and leaves.

This. The toilet stalls in US are the worst. No privacy whatsoever. Seems like
their design is meant to oppress. Hurry you back to _work_ , grunt!

In WeWork I can go to a quiet dark room, with moody music, and take a shit, in
peace.

~~~
pavel_lishin
In our new office, our stalls are laid out in such a way that you can make eye
contact with the person shitting across from you.

Aside from all the other myriad god-awful decisions that someone didn't think
through, this one weirds me out the most. I know it's hard to see these things
on blueprints, but it's as if these people never shit.

(I know, I know - the correct answer is, "this is the cheap best-practice way
of installing toilet stalls". Fuck you; I'm glad I have a private unisex
bathroom I can typically use to handle private bodily functions.)

~~~
IncRnd
I've been in casinos where the bathrooms had mirrors on the ceilings. I'm not
talking about in-room bathrooms, either.

It's very weird that someone would design something like that.

~~~
hudibras
It's for security to check for sex and drug use.

~~~
reledi
Many casinos have two-way mirrored ceilings for observation. Hopefully it's a
normal mirror in the restroom ceilings, otherwise I'm not sure how legal it
would be.

------
bsenftner
I ran a coworking space in downtown Los Angeles for about 3 years, at the same
time that WeWork was rising. I'm also older, I was in my late 40's while
operating the CoWorking space called DropLabs. I noticed that the people who
preferred WeWork and similar LA coworking spaces were young, under 30, with
family money they did not value, so the prospect of a trendy coworking space
with lots of other young people for 2-6 times what we charged, seemed really
odd to me. So, I tried working there for a week to see what the attraction is
- it is all the other young people, WeWork's atmosphere, in the Hollywood one
at least, felt like a high school dance, with a surprising amount of flirting
and partying between the people at the space. I felt, perhaps a half dozen
people out of the nearly one hundred there were actually trying to get work
done. the majority behaved like they had no idea what work is. After that
week, I returned to my non-fancy coworking space downtown and operated it for
another year before closing. WeWork, in Los Angeles at least, captured all the
young, flush with family cash "entrepreneur wannabes" and sucks their cash.
WeWork is 1.5 to 2x the cost of a office. They figured out youth will pay to
be around other youth, creating a "entrepreneur play zone" where they
reinforce the idea they are not really wasting their family's money nor their
lives.

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sputknick
I remember in early 2000 Newsweek did a whole "tech" issue. In it was a story
about a woman who charged $600 an hour helping fledgling startups buy
furniture for their offices. This article gave me the same vibe as that one.
These tenants don't sound profitable (I could be wrong, they could all be
wildly successful) and WeWork is expanding aggressively expecting their to be
more of them. When they stop paying the rent, wework stops paying the
mortgage.

~~~
jdavis703
It's not that dire. They simply wind up renting out entire floors of their
real estate to "legacy" companies. Sure they can't charge the premiums that
come from leasing small spaces, but they're a real estate firm which makes
them a little more resilient to a startup downturn.

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michaeljbishop
I worked at a startup that used WeWork (Denver) for about 9 months. When I
first walked into the lobby, I wondered if I was in the right place, because
it felt like a clothing-retail store, complete with constant runway-music
playing from overhead.

My first impression was "how am I supposed to work here?" I loved that they
had cold-brew and beer on tap, a clean working-space, and interesting events.
They seemed really optimized to provide a workspace that was fun.

The problem was, I wasn't there for fun, I was there to get stuff done and for
that I needed a place that was peaceful, quiet, with few distractions. The
environment at WeWork wasn't optimized for that kind of long, deep work and in
fact seemed to actively fight against it.

If your work tasks consist mostly of light, interruptible "busy" tasks, like
responding to email, or participating on Slack, WeWork is probably fine. If
your work consists of long, deep-dive tasks, I'd recommend getting your own
office space until WeWork starts providing an atmosphere that better
accommodates peace, quiet, and isolation.

~~~
sotojuan
To be fair, a lot of tech company offices are not much quieter than a WeWork
e.g. open plan office/many places I've seen put engineers right next to people
that have to be on phones all day.

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jnordwick
Drink, a lot.

And i don't just mean those floor hopping beer parties that start Friday
around noon, but the weekly get togethers that are nothing less than cheap
alcohol ragers.

That place is impossible to get stuff done in (but a lot of fun to visit).

~~~
jdavis703
You can get noise cancelling headphones. It's like working at an open office
floor plan at a big tech company. Also in California they're no longer allowed
to have beer on tap; something about underage drinking (for those outside the
U.S., the drinking age is set at 21). I'm surprised this hasn't become an
issue in other states that are even more conservative.

~~~
BoorishBears
Active noise cancelling doesn’t really help with the type of noise you get
from a lot of people talking in a space, and the best passive noise canceling
headphones are generally not comfortable enough to wear for long periods of
time.

------
codingdave
I'm resisting googling this Hater app because reading the whole tale of
Brendan reads like the greatest satire of the startup world, ever. But I'm
afraid if I Google it I'll find out it isn't satire...

~~~
dawhizkid
Sometimes I wonder if there is a class of startup founders who are basically
only doing what they are doing for their own personal brand building and after
a few years or whatever you become semi well known enough in tech circles to
parlay that into something else or an acceptance into some b-school and go
back to a real job.

~~~
aidaman
That's exactly the vibe I got from the "cofounder" who is Head of PR. At 2%
equity and $1,500 a month, that has to be the rawest deal I have heard of for
someone who is essentially responsible for all of the company's traction.

~~~
dawhizkid
Yeah, not sure how you live on $18k/year salary in NYC unless you're being
supported by your family, which is what I'm guessing is happening here for
both of them. Not many people have a network of exclusively friends and family
to fund their seed round to the tune of a few $100k...

------
ionwake
"...to coincide with some canny PR stunts—coverage on The View, Good Morning
America, CBS’s Sunday Morning, and Fox & Friends; features on seven blogs
embargoed for the same day; a viral public- art installation depicting Trump
and Putin nude and locked in an embrace."

Please could someone on HN tell me how the hell one organises, gets funding
and pays for this type of PR. I can dev the apps but I am just unable to
promote.

Any help or information is appreciated, thank you.

------
swampthinker
This article briefly touches upon what people actually do at WeWork. Nothing
more.

~~~
krisives
I bailed after the 2 paragraphs of filler intro about his morning time and
coffee.

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elliotec
Wow, this article is insufferable.

~~~
kornish
The content or the style?

~~~
jogjayr
A bit of both. There's nothing here specific to WeWork itself. You could say a
lot of these things about practically anyone who works their day job at any
kind of co-working space. It feels like a bunch of anecdotes about freelancers
and small business owners who happen to work under the same roof. There wasn't
much actual substance and it was hard to tell whether any conclusions were
going to be drawn at the end (I'll admit to giving up halfway).

~~~
partisan
Maybe that was the point? There really wasn't any substance. Just some people
killing time while playing with other people's money.

------
dimastopel
We started our company at WeWork and moved to our offices when we were around
7 people. It was a very convenient solution for a young company that just want
to concentrate on what is important (the product). We never participated in
any social activities and hardly knew out neighbors (if at all). I'd do it the
same way again.

------
orblivion
I was looking for a twice a week office in Berkeley and tried out the WeWork.
Unless you get the all access package with assigned seat, their offering is
absurd. I literally could only hang out in the cafe, which had diner seating
or some other awkward arrangements.

Seemed all hip and no utility.

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nora4
I feel like for WeWork style business, it should be a race to the bottom (in
terms of prices). Once the idea is validated, there would be (as there are)
lots of local clones that would try to make a more cool indie version of
WeWork. The resulting price-cutting and heavy competition make business rather
difficult.

As such, I'm not sure where the economy of scale will come from and why should
this be a sustainable business? To be fair, Starbucks and other
coffee/restaurant chains also have similar general business characteristics.

Along this note, I don't understand why WeWork is a venture-backed business as
opposed to a normal bootstrap business (with more emphasis on early cash-flow
and less on growth) as it's usually the case with the above type businesses.

~~~
matt4077
There's a certain network effect, at least for some people: you can just take
your business on the road and work in a different city every week.

With the name recognition they're getting, they may also get really good deals
on office space: I've personally witnessed a co-working space gentrifying a
whole city block. The whole block was also owned by the same investor, who
apparently gave them a 50% rebate on a ten-year contract. She has easily
gotten a 10x ROI on it, since rents in the rest of the buildings tripled
within two years.

~~~
nora4
That's a great point. Hip, cool, modern entrepreneur types can easily work as
agents of gentrification which as you pointed out can lead to massive increase
in wealth for nearby properties owners (at the expense of previous
occupants/patrons, some will argue).

~~~
opencl
The decreased wealth of occupants is the entire source of the landlord's
increased wealth when rent increases, are there really people who will argue
that isn't the case?

~~~
nora4
I guess purely logically, you are right. But I would be against the underlying
theme behind that general type of thinking. If you take that line of thought
and extrapolate it, it starts getting close to a socialistic/anti-economic
progress point of view.

------
aidaman
Wow that guy from Hater is REALLY good at PR.

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lerie82
Who is renting this space? Do people not have wifi and desks in their homes?

------
Markoff
any idea how to unsubscribe from their mail list? this week I got at least
three spasms from this shady company, yet I font remember providing them with
my email address and they are missing unsubscribe link in e-mail, so my whole
impression of this company summed to two keywords - shady spammers

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GreaterFool
I can't decide whether the article is a pile of garbage or, somehow, smart and
cunning and I just don't get it

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ramzyo
>> “Our valuation and size today are much more based on our energy and
spirituality than it is on a multiple of revenue.”

This is their CEO being quoted. If this isn’t Silicon Valley pixie dust I
don’t know what is.

~~~
zaroth
For a pre-revenue or just recent revenue product, that’s _exactly_ what
valuation is based on. In a word: team.

~~~
briandear
How the hell is WeWork “pre-revenue” or even “recent revenue” — they have been
around since 2010.

Yet the CEO is admitting that the valuation is pretty much bullshit; how can
“spiritually” make a single note but of difference for how much a company is
worth? Imagine if a company said they were highly valued because they were
committed to prayer and going to church every Sunday.

~~~
IncRnd
You've got to hand it to this CEO of WeWork. He's a better businessperson than
the investors...

------
Animats
And if you're over 45, you don't belong there.

Their next venture should be WeDie, a chain of euthanasia centers for
disposing of people who've outlived their sell-by date.

------
CodeSheikh
"Plenty of big companies are now tenants with their own floors or wings in
WeWork: Microsoft, IBM, GE, Spotify, Bank of America, NBC Left Field, a
fledgling unit of the network aimed at cord-cutting millennials." I personally
find this trend problematic. Getting in to WeWork is not a challenging task.
ONLY requirement is that you are able to pay your daily/weekly/monthly dues.
If all of this is being done by large corps. for PR purposes than I can
understand the whole "connect to Millennials bandwagon aspect". But of it is
being done to actually hire "good" talent then I am not sure if it is always
guaranteed that 3 out of 20 WeWork-ers are more than "good" coders. For me
WeWork is like that coffee shop that never closes, there is always a table
available for the coder in you and you have to paya premium price for average
coffee.

