I generally agree w/ Alex - valuation is sky high, and sustainability is
questionable. In general, be careful of the hype.
My 2 cents: WeWork is closer to a hotel operation. They’ve recently been
exploring more and more the lounge/conference rooms side of the business, and
in my opinion, explore next the retail side (coffee, etc.).
So then the question is, “Is a hotel business a real estate company?”
My opinion is no - it’s a business operation.
Does a hotel or WeWork foster “community”?
My opinion is maybe, in that certain demographics will gravitate to
that brand and therefore appreciate meeting fellow like-minded folks.
In the end, does it matter?
My opinion is no. They’re focusing on what they do, and if they have
any interest to collaborate with the rest of us coworking folks, then great. In
the meantime, they’ll just continue to claim they’re coworking, as will many
others who are coworking or not, or who collaborate w/ fellow coworking folks
or not.
JEROME CHANG
WEST: Santa Monica
1450 2nd Street (@Broadway) | Santa Monica CA 90401
ph: (310) 526-2255
CENTRAL: Mid-Wilshire
5405 Wilshire Blvd (2 blocks west of La Brea) | Los Angeles CA 90036
ph: (323) 330-9505
EAST: Downtown
529 S. Broadway, Suite 4000 (@Pershing Square) | Los Angeles CA 90013
ph: (213) 550-2235
On Dec 16, 2014, at 9:13 AM, Alex Hillman <dangerouslyawes...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Yeah, definitely. They’re a real estate company. They’ve gotten better at
> their version of “community” than Regus has, for sure, but if you get closer
> to what they do instead of reading the press and their marketing material,
> you’ll find that it’s a high volume, high turnover real estate business
> (which is a big part of what makes their financials appear different from
> their more conservative cousins).
>
> Among the many things that are interesting to me is that early on, they
> actively rejected the coworking language along with the broader coworking
> community…until coworking really started to mainstream and it became
> advantageous for them to use the word. Now they’re rejecting the idea of
> being a real estate company because they don’t like being compared to it.
>
> I don’t think their model is bad, by the way. And they’re definitely smart.
> Overvalued? Definitely, but that’s what happens when you align yourself with
> an already overvalued startup market (which is the vast majority of their
> audience). But also like the startup market, this kind of growth isn’t
> sustainable…which is a whole lot more evident when you look beyond what the
> press tells you is true :)
>
> -Alex
>
> ------------------
> The #1 mistake in community building is doing it by yourself.
> Join the list: http://coworkingweekly.com
> Listen to the podcast: http://listen.coworkingweekly.com
>
>
>
> On Tue, Dec 16, 2014 at 11:57 AM, Aaron Cruikshank <aa...@cruikshank.me>
> wrote:
>
> Alex,
>
> Do you consider WeWork to be coworking or something else - closer to Regus?
>
> - Aaron
>
> Aaron Cruikshank
> Principal, CRUIKSHANK
> phone: 778.908.4560
> e-mail: aa...@cruikshank.me
> web: cruikshank.me
> twitter: @cruikshank
> book a meeting: doodle.com/cruikshank
> linkedin: in/cruikshank
>
>
>
>
> On Tue, Dec 16, 2014 at 8:05 AM, Alex Hillman <dangerouslyawes...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> Funny enough, the article URL is more telling about what’s really going on
> here:
>
> /wework-now-a-5-billion-real-estate-sartup-1418690163
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------
> The #1 mistake in community building is doing it by yourself.
> Join the list: http://coworkingweekly.com
> Listen to the podcast: http://listen.coworkingweekly.com
>
>
>
> On Tue, Dec 16, 2014 at 10:59 AM, Steve King <sk...@emergentresearch.com>
> wrote:
>
> Wall Street Journal reports WeWork just raised $355 million and is now valued
> at $5+ billion.
>
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