I'm not a believer in WW's business model, but this is an overly-cynical take. We're a company that "started" in WeWork, have our own office now, and in fact moved a different office of ours from a private space in Long Island to a WeWork in Manhattan.
What WeWork offers to small businesses is quite valuable: an instantly-obtainable month-to-month lease, at relatively reasonable rates, with all standard office amenities (most notably Internet access) included. You can decide you need an office for your business on a Monday and have a better office on Tuesday than most of your local peers. Even better, you can quickly scale that office up to completely private offices or down to shared space.
To put it gently, the jury is still out on whether WeWork is charging an amount, given its number of subscribers at each level of service, to make the company profitable. It seems totally fair to predict that it'll turn out to be a house of cards.
It does not, on the other hand, seem fair to suggest that WeWork isn't offering something that people want.
It does not, on the other hand, seem fair to suggest that WeWork isn't offering something that people want.
If WeWork isn’t charging people enough to be profitable, there is no way of knowing whether WeWork is offering something people want - at a price they are willing to pay.
What WeWork offers to small businesses is quite valuable: an instantly-obtainable month-to-month lease, at relatively reasonable rates, with all standard office amenities (most notably Internet access) included. You can decide you need an office for your business on a Monday and have a better office on Tuesday than most of your local peers. Even better, you can quickly scale that office up to completely private offices or down to shared space.
To put it gently, the jury is still out on whether WeWork is charging an amount, given its number of subscribers at each level of service, to make the company profitable. It seems totally fair to predict that it'll turn out to be a house of cards.
It does not, on the other hand, seem fair to suggest that WeWork isn't offering something that people want.