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Comment by john37386 | Hacker News Reader

I'm a consultant and I rented some space at WeWork Montreal.

When I visit my clients in their office, which are not IT related, I often notice how grey or dark brown'ish are the walls. The vibe is kind of depressing in some old style offices in Montreal.

I must say that I really enjoyed going back to my shared office at WeWork. The light was nice, the vibe and I was connecting with people with similar mindset. I can't vouch for M. neumann, but I can say that my time at WeWork was really awesome. I would often invite my clients to WeWork so that we don't need to meet in their super depressive dark'ish offices. My clients were always amazed and impress by the WeWork offices in Mtl.

I quit, not because of the latest issue, but for personnal reason.

I miss WeWork and I will definitely renew my subscription later if they still offer thata amazing experience.

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You’re missing the point. Those clients you visited had old offices because they acted rationally and paid an appropriate amount for them (and didn’t receive subsidies). You were paying under market for a cool, new place. I bet you and those others with similar mindsets would be priced out if WeWork tried making a profit.

Isn't there a middle ground between grey and old brown'ish offices and wework though ?

Yes, it's called Google-level profit margins and a willingness to spend it on things like this.

If the architecture and design were open source, how expensive would it be to recreate that office?

I know this comment too will get downvoted but I find it weird that a genuine question is getting downvotes. To my knowledge the whole thing is made up of design and actual physical things. Designs can be open sourced, right? So how much do these things actually cost to obtain?

When you start breaking things down, you'll realize that things are often the way they are because they are the most efficient way to organize resources.

AirBnbs are cheaper than hotels because they don't have to pay for the licensing or meet the safety requirements of hotels. Ubers are cheaper than taxis because Ubers don't have to deal with taxi driver unions. WeWork looks better than standard gray-brown boring offices because WeWork style offices actually cost a lot.

Your awesome experience was subsidized massively by investor money and couldn’t last, unfortunately.

Then, I guess I quit at the right time. I would definitely not pay more than what I was paying at the time. Thanks for bringing up this point

> I would definitely not pay more than what I was paying at the time.

This is why many people feel the value of WeWork may be $0.

Why are they overvaluing it so much?

>>I'm a consultant and I rented some space at WeWork Montreal.

Please note that "We" is a registered trademark. Fixed it for you: I'm a consultant and I rented some space at We®Work Montreal.

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