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There are millions of poorly run shady businesses, it's a problem that takes care of itself if you don't have infinite money coming in. Not sure that it's a pr

by thefj 7y ago

There are millions of poorly run shady businesses, it's a problem that takes care of itself if you don't have infinite money coming in. Not sure that it's a problem now though. Like Matt Levine suggested[0], WeWork did a lot of weird shit when they were private, but now they want public money, they need to behave more like a responsible company. It's kind of what's supposed to happen because of the disclosure, it's just that most of the time companies take care of governance issues before the S-1. [0] https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-09-13/we-is-sorry-about-the-weirdness https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-09-13/we-is-...

ianferrel 7y ago
I think an under-appreciated aspect is that you can't just have a CEO who's engaged in extremely questionable practices like WeWork's did just flip a switch and say "Ok, now we're public, so I'm going to cut all that out and be honest". It's a pretty big fucking signal that he's not trustworthy. Neumann's past behavior is still a problem.
- thefj 7y ago
  Absolutely. Traditionally the move for a company in this situation might be to replace the CEO if they plan to raise public money and he has a history of bad behaviour. In WeWork's case it's probably impossible to remove him both legally and because the whole company is built around his personality cult.
  - munk-a 7y ago
    I mean... this should lower the valuation into the ground, companies built around personalities will collapse - possibly when the personality retires/dies but more likely just due to implosion over crazy antics. A company is something "we" build, it isn't something "one" builds, and this misunderstanding is causing a lot of social pains in the US right now.
    - dondawest 7y ago
      >A company is something “we” build It is deeply ironic that the company that elucidates this exact philosophy in its IPO is such a good example of a company built by “one.”

by thefj 7y ago

ianferrel 7y ago

I think an under-appreciated aspect is that you can't just have a CEO who's engaged in extremely questionable practices like WeWork's did just flip a switch and say "Ok, now we're public, so I'm going to cut all that out and be honest". It's a pretty big fucking signal that he's not trustworthy. Neumann's past behavior is still a problem.

thefj 7y ago
Absolutely. Traditionally the move for a company in this situation might be to replace the CEO if they plan to raise public money and he has a history of bad behaviour. In WeWork's case it's probably impossible to remove him both legally and because the whole company is built around his personality cult.
- munk-a 7y ago
  I mean... this should lower the valuation into the ground, companies built around personalities will collapse - possibly when the personality retires/dies but more likely just due to implosion over crazy antics. A company is something "we" build, it isn't something "one" builds, and this misunderstanding is causing a lot of social pains in the US right now.
  - dondawest 7y ago
    >A company is something “we” build It is deeply ironic that the company that elucidates this exact philosophy in its IPO is such a good example of a company built by “one.”