The consensus on Wall Street has WeWork nowhere near its $47B valuation. Like Uber/Lyft, its size is more a consequence of VC investment, rather than organic growth.
Plus the management isn't particularly scrupulous with how they allocate those funds. The CEO, for instance, buys property himself and then rents it to WeWork (for a profit obviously). VCs let him get away with it because their business is no longer to fund and help create sustainable companies, but rather to gather as much money into a "unicorn" as they can and then pawn it off to the public markets who ultimately pay the bill.
Plus the management isn't particularly scrupulous with how they allocate those funds. The CEO, for instance, buys property himself and then rents it to WeWork (for a profit obviously). VCs let him get away with it because their business is no longer to fund and help create sustainable companies, but rather to gather as much money into a "unicorn" as they can and then pawn it off to the public markets who ultimately pay the bill.