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I believe WeWork wants to compete with LinkedIn. After initial signup, which includes charging your credit card, they force you to enter your personal informat

I believe WeWork wants to compete with LinkedIn. After initial signup, which includes charging your credit card, they force you to enter your personal information, your company information including company contact and phone number, and at least one skill on their list of approved professional skills before you are allowed to cancel.

robbiep 7y ago
I am aware of a co working space/incubator with a number of sites in Australia making bulk $$ on selling information on the startups in residence to other firms. The case that was described to me: a travel company paying around $100k pa for intelligence on travel related startups in residence- they use the data to determine rate of growth and strategic threats so they can either compete, ignore or make an offer to these new businesses. If we work isn’t monetising their business intelligence then they would be leaving a lot on the table
- olefoo 7y ago
  Were that not disclosed to potential tenants, that could rapidly turn into a liability; from a PR standpoint but also from the fiduciary responsibility your landlord can't use their position to appropriate confidential information about your business and whore it out to all and sundry.
- underwater 7y ago
  Why wouldn't you call them out (anonymously)? That sounds highly unethical.
  - robbiep 7y ago
    It wasn’t my co working space/I wasn’t working there and I suspect it would have been buried in the t&cs. I was in wework in sydney at the time and re read our t&cs, my reading was that they could probably do the same but it wasn’t explicit, and if they were they were being sloppy about it (ie they knew my headcount because we had to get passes each time, but there wasn’t a strong program of engagement to find out what each business did, just get on with your work). This other space I reference actually had people in regular contact with the businesses habiting the space, in order to connect with industry, government grants and other programs etc, so it actually bridged the space a bit more between a coworking space and incubator (without being any specific program)
alaskamiller 7y ago
They have a wonky social network web app built into the onboarding and booking process but it's not very good compared to linkedin, facebook, or even google plus. Their booking software itself is actually pretty bad compared to other room booking software out there.
simonebrunozzi 7y ago
I think you are really, really far off here. The fact that WeWork sits on certain personal information, but NO information on past jobs, network, etc, should tell you enough.

robbiep 7y ago

I am aware of a co working space/incubator with a number of sites in Australia making bulk $$ on selling information on the startups in residence to other firms. The case that was described to me: a travel company paying around $100k pa for intelligence on travel related startups in residence- they use the data to determine rate of growth and strategic threats so they can either compete, ignore or make an offer to these new businesses. If we work isn’t monetising their business intelligence then they would be leaving a lot on the table

olefoo 7y ago
Were that not disclosed to potential tenants, that could rapidly turn into a liability; from a PR standpoint but also from the fiduciary responsibility your landlord can't use their position to appropriate confidential information about your business and whore it out to all and sundry.
underwater 7y ago
Why wouldn't you call them out (anonymously)? That sounds highly unethical.
- robbiep 7y ago
  It wasn’t my co working space/I wasn’t working there and I suspect it would have been buried in the t&cs. I was in wework in sydney at the time and re read our t&cs, my reading was that they could probably do the same but it wasn’t explicit, and if they were they were being sloppy about it (ie they knew my headcount because we had to get passes each time, but there wasn’t a strong program of engagement to find out what each business did, just get on with your work). This other space I reference actually had people in regular contact with the businesses habiting the space, in order to connect with industry, government grants and other programs etc, so it actually bridged the space a bit more between a coworking space and incubator (without being any specific program)

alaskamiller 7y ago

They have a wonky social network web app built into the onboarding and booking process but it's not very good compared to linkedin, facebook, or even google plus. Their booking software itself is actually pretty bad compared to other room booking software out there.

simonebrunozzi 7y ago

I think you are really, really far off here. The fact that WeWork sits on certain personal information, but NO information on past jobs, network, etc, should tell you enough.