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The depth of the hole they're in at IPO time has some bearing as to whether or not they'll climb out of it.
by human20190310 7y ago
The depth of the hole they're in at IPO time has some bearing as to whether or not they'll climb out of it.
- mrtksn 7y agoBut this doesn’t say if they are a tech company or not. If you think that it’s a bad investment simply don’t invest? Why is the “WeWork ain’t tech company” uproar?
- the_gastropod 7y agoIt seems like you're just not listening. They're not a tech company because they, while they may use software for some things, it's not their differentiator. Tech companies are valued at higher multiples because software doesn't deal with scarcity. It costs Microsoft virtually nothing to sell an extra copy of Windows. So each extra sale is pure profit. WeWork sells OFFICE SPACE—something with real world scarcity, and each additional sale / customer they get has very real costs and overhead associated with it.
- mrtksn 7y agoi’m not convinced that this is true because they can embrace the Uber or AirBnB business models to do just that. If They can be Tech companies, WeWork can too. I suspect that the value is in the brand, just like with the Uber or AirBnB. Making a booking software or mobile app is not such a big deal but they are called tech companies for some reason.
- ohashi 7y agoYour argument is the company can pivot post-IPO to something it's never done and it's magically a successful tech company? I feel like you didn't read the article or being purposefully dense.
- mrtksn 7y agoBut the thing that “never done” is not some technology. How this will change the status of WeWork as a tech company or not? Also I wouldn’t call it pivot, their users even don’t have to notice a thing. They can do it concurrently. Pretty much like McDonalds owning some of the restaurants and providing franchises to the rest.
- ohashi 7y agoIt would be closer in alignment with what was defined as a tech company. The article is pretty explicit defining the features of a tech company. WeWork isn't. Saying they could do something that would fit some of those characteristics and it's easy doesn't magically make it true. If McDonalds is so easy, how come everyone else isn't as globally prevalent? It's not easy. It's competitive as hell. It's a completely different model. But you're not making arguments in good faith, you're just being intentionally dense.