Has been an incredible learning experience for me on the unicorn class in general. Looking forward to unicorn report for 2019 [1].
[0] https://www.profgalloway.com/wewtf-part-deux
[1] https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2019/03/20/the-unicorn-ipo-r...
Where's the technology in WeWork?
"Technology is at the foundation of our global platform. Our purpose-built technology and operational expertise has allowed us to scale our core WeWork space-as-a-service offering quickly, while improving the quality of our solutions and decreasing the cost to find, build, fill and run our spaces. We have approximately 1,000 engineers, product designers and machine learning scientists that are dedicated to building, integrating and automating the complex systems we use to operate our business. As a result, we are able to deliver a premium experience to our members at a lower price relative to traditional alternatives."
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1533523/000119312519...
Okay, I'll bite: what is the core of their value-proposition? A cultural aesthetic? Cheap rent?
Since it's very easy to set up a competitor (at least in my area, since numerous knockoffs have been created in the last few years) their margins are low at best, and they have almost no customer lock-in, I have no idea what their value proposition is for investors.
A few days ago I moved into a WeWork clone called JustCo. The spaces are much larger, look virtually identical and are in a neighbouring building. Price difference per month was $2300 vs $1600 + a month free. WeWork's best offer was 5% off if we signed for 12 months. No free beer here, but I've got a beer budget of $700 a month with the savings.
It seems WeWork's sales guys here in Sydney have very little freedom to discount.
Tech my foot. The printer software is an abomination.
...that's a surprise....
[0] https://www.vox.com/2018/10/26/18029008/pivot-kara-swisher-s...
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m58YkxEjzT4
____
Edit
Linked to a better resource.
For example, he predicted both Amazon and Google would be 'losers' back in 2015.. oops:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2015/04/09/the-fut...
Macy’s Stock https://g.co/kgs/8KZ1Kj
Prediction is a hard business.
https://www.profgalloway.com/every-seven-years
Market was at 21,600 (very roughly) on the approx. date of that post and now is at close to 27,000. It did not go lower than 22,400 in the interim.
To wit (that post):
> There are several hard metrics for why we may be nearing full-monty bubble, including things my NYU colleagues spend a great deal of time thinking about, and understand much better. But you don't need a Nobel to see the similarities between 1999 and 2017. (Btw, NYU Stern has three active Nobel Prize winners… We. Rule. But that's another post.)
Very generally if you are predicting a collapse ala 1999 you need to be a bit more accurate than that.
I didn't do a great deal of work to find that post either, it was linked in the post you gave.
Edit: Also love his being so proud of the anointed 3 active nobel prize winners. Would like to remind everyone that until recently the game in business was making money or a great product or being loved by your customers not winning academic awards and platitudes.
But he's also made some really bad calls. For example he predicted that Spotify was going to be the next FANG and that the stock price would double last year. That's not a crime, nobody knows what is going to happen in the future, but it's the arrogance and condescension and air of certainty that bothers me.
He was so adamant about the dominance of voice and how Alexa was going to take over and largely disrupt touch screens. That was the call that I never agreed with and made me more skeptical of what he says. More than once I saw him on tv talking very condescendingly to people who questioned that call and in the end, two years later, I still don't know a single person who has ordered anything using Alexa. To this day it remains a cooking timer and a way to control audio equipment (if I'm really lazy). Galloway called it the most transformative device in ten years. Really?
My favorite so far has been the bulk-order of travel size bars of dove soap. Why is that even a thing? Surely anyone who could fit 12 travel bars in their suitcase could just as easily fit a regular bar?
... why would you assume someone would take all of them at the same time? Instead of maybe multiple family members using them, keeping a stockpile at home (so they don't have to order an individual one every time they need one), keeping them on hand for guests, ...
I was being facetious... taking it literally à la Amelia Bedelia.
Sure he's wrong a lot, but at least he's never half-right half-wrong
He also gave a glowing take on Smile Direct Club the day before the IPO, which has tanked 50% in a few weeks and had the biggest IPO flop in a decade, so YMMV.
It seems Kara Swisher's entire reason for existing is for expressing disdain. In any organization she'd be that political person who adds no value to projects but rises due to her expertise at networking and name dropping.
I much prefer the journalists on the Economist podcast and the people on The Weeds (Vox) and FiveThirtyEight.
The a16z podcasts are way better - I can't recall the name of the ladies who generally host that but they are much more effective interviewers and analysts.