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Comment by api_or_ipa | Hacker News Reader

Pretty sad. I hope someone picks up the pieces and keeps the company going. Say what you will about the company and it's leadership, but WeWork as a service was splendid. Yes, there's lots of other short-term office providers, but I never found a competitor that executed on the vision of a world-wide lattice of places from which to work.

Having a place to work vastly opened up my vacation cycles. Instead of travelling for a single weekend, I could go visit a friend in Paris, or Mexico City, or back home, or wherever. During the week when people worked, I would work out of a WeWork. Come 4-5pm, I'd go hangout with the people I wanted to see. Suddenly a long-weekend trip could be feasibly expanded to a week or longer without much hassle.

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Unless you're willing to pay a ridiculously high premium for this, the benefits WeWork's provided you still doesn't work as a business model.

That's right. A friend of mine sells premium offices and he's been saying WeWork's business plan made no sense at all for as long as I can remember.

Basically, in any premium office, you want to maximize the space for as many high value desks as possible. WeWork often spends a huge part of its space for perks and temp desks. In addition, WeWork attracts the startups/small business/solo crowd and those are far less stable customers than your money making enterprises. He routinely tells me very large customers often forgets that they're even paying for the office. That's the customer you want.

He was sure that WeWork had no future. He was right.

> hope someone picks up the pieces and keeps the company going

WeWork is considering filing for Chapter 11 protection. They're not going for liquidation.

Not many people understand what that means. I remember Romney saying that GM needed to go through bankruptcy (meaning chapter 11) back when he was running for president. He got crucified for saying that, but he wasn’t wrong, and iirc, they did end up in chapter 11.

Hopefully, WeWork restructures successfully. I’ve really enjoyed the few I’ve visited, and I think there’s a real business under all the nonsense.

> remember Romney saying that GM needed to go through bankruptcy (meaning chapter 11) back when he was running for president

Investment bankers, being salespeople, solved this in the 80s: companies in chapter 11 are restructuring or reorganizing. Not bankrupt.

Doesn't the bankruptcy court liquidate pieces of the company on behalf of the creditors if that is part of the agreement that is reached?

That's Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

Not typically. The court basically reorganizes debts, etc. That may include sale or liquidation of some assets.

In this case, I’d venture to guess that leases are the biggest liability, and given the market, I’d imagine the landlords will take a bath.

Hope not. Those co-working spaces were a disaster.

cause of final death: killed "from Covid", not "with Covid".

I just want back the economy that could keep WeWork afloat.

That would include low interest rates that made funding WeWork plausible/possible. That's probably not coming back for a while.

You want mandatory return to office? Really?

I think it's likely they were literally referring to the economy rather than return to office, considering WeWork stands only to lose when employees work from their employer's office

yes, I was, motivated by my extensive studies in the dismal science and finance, and my stock portfolio :)

The commercial real estate portion of my portfolio agrees with you.

The person that loves not having to go to an office does not ;)

In their 2019 S-1, WeWork stated 40% of their memberships were from companies with over 500 employees. For many companies, moving to remote did mean terminating WeWork memberships.

This is why I commented the way I did but I guess your parent found it down-vote-worthy.

One of my recent companies was one of those. A bit smaller but their entire office footprint was at WeWork offices in various places. Zero remote before Covid. Had to be in a WeWork office where they had a presence. Not even just "a" WeWork.

> I guess your parent found it down-vote-worthy.

I didn't downvote you. I don't even have the ability to downvote on HN yet. I just interpreted the parent comment differently and thought the different perspective could help provide context. Especially since I was similarly surprised at the idea that someone would prefer mandatory return to office

Interesting! Thanks for educating me. I always assumed significantly more of their business was remote folks that didn't want to work from their actual home.

>You want mandatory return to office? Really?

I have absolutely no reason to leave my house, and my intellectual tendencies keep me occupied without any other people around. Personally? I would welcome a staffed office to go to. I go to coffeeshops (with the other regulars) and it's nice but it's not the same

Wework started spiralling in 2019, it was never going to stay afloat.

I agree the global experience WeWork provides is really unique.

The question is whether that product would have ever been sustainable—had the company been better managed.

Regus is still worth billions.

We used to be in Regus' offices, which had the option to use their spaces in other countries too. Not having used WeWork I do not know how it compares, but at least you can use Regus' office in Paris or Mexico City if you want.

Was working remotely like that difficult from a tax perspective? I know a lot of places will require you to file even if you are only working there a single day.

Single day is likely unenforceable.

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