[jsloss]

They rent buildings (long term leases) and then rent out spaces (short term leases).

It scales. But you’re right, not in any way like a tech company.

The fact that they say tech is at their core is a joke. The only reason to use their app to to book a meeting room or remember your printing code.

[frenchie4111]

At their core they are probably not a “tech” company in the traditional sense (a SaaS business). However, I think you are misunderstanding what they mean by tech company. WeWork is more akin to Flexport. Their bet is that they can run their business 10x better than their competitors by vertically integrating their tech and investing heavily in sensors and efficiency technology. They don’t really intended to sell tech to people, they intend to use tech to bleed the most money they can out of their core business, short term leases.

[jrockway]

I am not sure I buy this. Sensors are great and everything, but the electricity for the LED lighting is not what makes buying or renting buildings in major cities expensive.

[throwaway5752]

Similarly to AirBnB and Uber. Same kind of thing - use technology create a company of larger scale and coordination than previously existed in a space.

I think the general WeWork idea is great. Investing in it is another story.

[MegaButts]

I have never seen WeWork compared to Flexport before. You don't consider Flexport to be a tech company?

[askl56]

So what you're saying is that they are not currently a tech company but that they intend to become one?

[rdtwo]

They are in a unique position that they aren’t actually locked into their long term leases but once they start breaking them they won’t be able to get more leases on those terms so it’s in their best interest to get as many as possible then use the option to wipe away the bad ones

[navigatesol]

>aren't actually locked into their long term leases

Can you elaborate on this?

[rdtwo]

I’m on mobile so I can’t find the article but basically each lease is held by a barely capitalized independent entity. If WeWork wanted to close down a specific site they could merely shut down that specific entity without incurring obligations/fines/penalties to the entity of WeWork. Normal these sorts of things aren’t allowed and building owners won’t sign up for that but somehow WeWork was able to bamboozle a bunch of developers into agreeing to that.