From WeWork to WeDontWork

WeWork Gangnam had Brookyln Brewery beer event. Which was always welcome. 

The recent news on WeWork and how Softbank had to bail out the company just to keep it afloat is, in many ways, sad to hear. I loved my time at WeWork's office space at Gangnam. It was smack middle of one of the THE most difficult places to have an office space in Seoul and here we were, this five-strong 20 something kids, with literally no money in our pockets and a company that was figuring out how to sell a product- enjoying the Gangnam way of work life. 

If that was a thing.

Peter Thiel's Zero to One outlines a basic strategy for startup to become successful. One, aim providing 10x value to either your nearest competitor or the money that your customer pays. Once you do that, aim at monopoly. Think of all the companies that you use in your everyday life, the Googles, the Facebooks, the Costcos that provide immense value back for the money you do invest in them (for the cost of privacy, sure but you are not THAT important, yet). WeWork was, in many ways, a company that provided extraordinarily huge value for a startup that was just trying to make its way towards the shore of an gigantic, endless body of water that could swallow and drown the shite out of you anytime. 

You get my point.

I absolutely loved working there. The interiors were beautiful, they had craft beer on tap (need I say more?), had plenty of opportunities to hang out and talk to entrepreneurs and self employed individuals.  Nothing spoke more to me than the aesthetics, even though I got to see other WeWork office spaces that were well lit, minimalist and super good looking than the one I was at later. The work environment hit home to facebook's Seoul office, without, in anyways, having to go through the strenuous process of competing with very smart people. Obviously, you had to have a company to begin with but there you go. 

What I am really trying to say is that WeWork as a co-working space was fantastic. Its rapid expansion and invest diversifying and embezzlement from the top hierarchy (I mean wtf?) coupled with lower rent outs (offices took 18 months to fill. They opening offices every two days) meant that the only way the company was growing was through investments. And Softbank had to dig and is still digging deep to salvage what's left. 

WeWork could have been WeStillWork. Unfortunately, tides have seriously turned, finances look bad. WeHope is the only thing that's remaining.