[TradingPlaces]

I see a lot of confusion over why anyone would want to take a stake in an Adam Neumann biz. Some guesses…

VCs are looking for return, and quickly, which is why they have glommed on to crypto projects. In the old model, you invest money, wait 5-10 years, and get a payoff when the company goes public or gets sold. With crypto, there is a much more immediate payoff with unregistered securities, AKA “tokens”. And then maybe a second payoff in 5-10 years.

There are no details from a16z or Flow on what this actually is, but I am guessing tokenized rent payments on a blockchain in some fashion, promising some sort of equity to renters, and quick returns to a16z. They came out with a splashy investment and a high valuation, and are hoping to make their money back on the unregistered securities, AKA tokens, and who knows, maybe more in 5-10 years.

Never underestimate the cynicism of a16z.

[rchaud]

There are few industries as cynical as venture capital. They won't ever invest in projects explicitly designed for public welfare because "the economics don't work" or "the innovation isn't there".

But they will invest eye-watering sums into financing student newspapers for the middle-aged (Substack) or 'turn your car into a public taxi' businesses, knowing that 90% of them won't amount to anything.

[badpun]

> There are few industries as cynical as venture capital. They won't ever invest in projects explicitly designed for public welfare because "the economics don't work"

As oposed to which industries exactly?

[rchaud]

"industry" wasn't the right word, as VCs don't produce anything. As investment philosophies go, it's very cynical.

[shaburn]

8200+ points but you don't acknowledge the fact VCs are legally bound to invest LPs money for economic returns.

[rchaud]

Well then it's unfortunate that our economy is structured to deliver economic returns to early stage investors that are grossly disproportionate to the company's actual performance in the market.

Flow will be no different. They will need to hire thousands D's of people with low interest VC cash and expand to 10 countries in order to deliver the same profitability as say a mid sized law firm. .

[shaburn]

Never saw an ad for WeWork. Did see them with $3 sq/ft office space in Oakland renting for $12. Softbank gave him an incentive to blow it up, thus he did. Cleared a few billion in cash and will probably be back to buy the remnants of WeWork and rights to Jared Leto's sequel. A real meanie though.

[TradingPlaces]

Yup.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidjeans/2022/08/17/adam-neum...