I worry that once WeWork fails, it will discourage other companies/innovators from getting into the realestate sector which desperately needs more innovation and progress.
It might also discourage other companies from getting into the fraud/scam sector, which would be great.
That seems optimistic.
Even if WeWork "fails" and IPOs at 15-20B it will be a resounding success for almost everyone except late investors (softbank), and recent hires.
Could its failure actually create opportunity? I'm not quite sure what and what level of failure is necessary, but if WeWork is the market leader and its influence drops, that would make space for innovation?
The market is functioning as expected, to me.
If WeWork fails unexpectedly quickly, it'll be a nice opportunity for other players in the workspace market to increase their occupancy. Probably less to do with innovation and more with having nice enough real estate near WeWorks.
Failure is not the worst thing in the world. For example, fake success is worse.
Fake success is simply failure waiting to happen at best. At worst, it's fraud.
Apart from showing the market viability of short-term lease/rentals (which is something I guess) what has WeWork really innovated?
Yea, I'm baffled by this. By that standard, Starbucks is the world's most innovative coffee company.
What the realestate sector needs is fewer rent-seekers, squatters, speculators, and stakeholders with a vested interest against seeing more development, but I strongly doubt VC startups are going to do anything about any of those issues.