[oldtownroad]

The problem is more fundamental. As with Uber, WeWork is an evolution of a simple and well understood business model… but layered with some high-tech fantasy about being able to change the fundamentals of the universe.

WeWork could have succeeded with the franchise model you describe or the focus on being a flexible leasing option for enterprise… but we wouldn’t have heard of them, that wouldn’t be the WeWork we ever knew. WeWork only became big because of the mythology, otherwise it would just be a nicer Regus… which existed before WeWork and will exist long after.

WeWork’s core business was mythology, like Uber, and every other “technology” business from the 2010s. You can peel back all the bullshit and say that their “core business” was good but it was all the bullshit that made WeWork, WeWork.