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The last WeWork I went into felt super impersonal. If I was to be a solo freelancer, I’d have to work somewhere communal because I hate working at home, but WeW

The last WeWork I went into felt super impersonal. If I was to be a solo freelancer, I’d have to work somewhere communal because I hate working at home, but WeWork doesn’t have the vibe of coworking. More like ultra-cubicles where talking to other people is even harder. Second, there is definitely a question mark on companies that have their main office at WeWork, like “this is temporary until we actually make money”. And as WeWork is forced to charge more, and the glut of office space hits (I see endless cranes over the Boston skyline) it will be not much more expensive to get the real thing. The long term tenants at WeWork would be satellite offices of a major company, so if company X wanted to move into a new city they would hire sales people and put them into a WeWork for when they aren’t out meeting clients. Otherwise everyone else is temporarily embarrassed while they plan on moving up.

sroussey 7y ago
I know they are known for hot desks and all, but that actually accounts for very little of their square footage. For a solo freelancer it is a nice to have. But have 6 people and growing, then it’s a different world. Hard to find places that aren’t WeWork. Get to 14 and growing still, and you are doing leases for expected size (say 65) and a long term lease. So you are getting much more than needed. Then you grow faster and you need an office for 200 and you still have your old 5-10 year lease for 65 and now you have to sublease that out and get your next 10 year lease, hopefully in a place with an option to expand. And you probably have that 12 person office lease too if you weren’t able to get out (we were in this story).
- josephjrobison 7y ago
  Yea the flexibility is the bread and butter. I talked to Regus, and their default pricing revolves around 24-month leases, while WeWork prices off monthly. Spot on from grandparent comment on community. One of their main forms of community is an occasional cereal bar with $20 worth of cereal and milk for the whole space, and the majority of other social events are paid for by another company.
- coredog64 7y ago
  We as a concept isn’t terrible. As you mentioned, the flexibility is useful for clients. And bringing some data mining to the table could give them an edge in right sizing their lease footprint, providing the right amenities, and with pricing. But the whole mindset around this specific implementation is hot garbage.
- mdorazio 7y ago
  Who the hell is signing 10 year leases? 5 is standard. And why don't you have a good relationship with the landlord? I've always been able to upgrade to a larger space without needing to hold onto the previous lease long-term (just until another tenant is found). Granted, if you need truly flexible amount of space on a sub-yearly basis (both up and down), WeWork or other co-los are a better model despite the huge price premium, but I genuinely don't understand the demonization of the traditional office leasing market that WeWork supporters bandy about.
  - dannyw 7y ago
    We are moving to a more flexible world, eg AWS. It’s not unreasonable to seek, prioritise and expect flexibility in office space. Why _do I_ have to sign a 5 year lease?
    - manigandham 7y ago
      You don't. There are tons of flexible space options and have been for a very long time. WeWork is nothing new, just an expensive and shiny veneer over existing services.
- ac2u 7y ago
  Disclosure: I work for SquareFoot Unfortunately the real estate market (outside of a few key players) has struggled to change their offerings away from rigid fixed terms to accommodate the need for flexibility. Their long term business models and predictions were based on the revenue streams from those rigid terms, but the segment of the market which requires flexibility above all else is growing fast. However, that demand only had access to office space which specialised in the flexible office space market, meaning your choices are limited to providers which shove you in a generic box room, until you need to move to another bigger generic box room. To square that circle, we launched FLEX by SquareFoot, where we work with clients to pick the terms of their lease with all of the concerns you listed, but without having to restrict their choices to providers which specialise in flexible solutions. It's our way of exposing a lot more commercial real estate inventory that in the past required rigid commitments to the growing segment of the market which needs the flexibility. https://www.squarefoot.com/blog/why-we-launched-flex-by-squarefoot/ https://www.squarefoot.com/blog/why-we-launched-flex-by-squa...

sroussey 7y ago

I know they are known for hot desks and all, but that actually accounts for very little of their square footage. For a solo freelancer it is a nice to have. But have 6 people and growing, then it’s a different world. Hard to find places that aren’t WeWork. Get to 14 and growing still, and you are doing leases for expected size (say 65) and a long term lease. So you are getting much more than needed. Then you grow faster and you need an office for 200 and you still have your old 5-10 year lease for 65 and now you have to sublease that out and get your next 10 year lease, hopefully in a place with an option to expand. And you probably have that 12 person office lease too if you weren’t able to get out (we were in this story).

josephjrobison 7y ago
Yea the flexibility is the bread and butter. I talked to Regus, and their default pricing revolves around 24-month leases, while WeWork prices off monthly. Spot on from grandparent comment on community. One of their main forms of community is an occasional cereal bar with $20 worth of cereal and milk for the whole space, and the majority of other social events are paid for by another company.
coredog64 7y ago
We as a concept isn’t terrible. As you mentioned, the flexibility is useful for clients. And bringing some data mining to the table could give them an edge in right sizing their lease footprint, providing the right amenities, and with pricing. But the whole mindset around this specific implementation is hot garbage.
mdorazio 7y ago
Who the hell is signing 10 year leases? 5 is standard. And why don't you have a good relationship with the landlord? I've always been able to upgrade to a larger space without needing to hold onto the previous lease long-term (just until another tenant is found). Granted, if you need truly flexible amount of space on a sub-yearly basis (both up and down), WeWork or other co-los are a better model despite the huge price premium, but I genuinely don't understand the demonization of the traditional office leasing market that WeWork supporters bandy about.
- dannyw 7y ago
  We are moving to a more flexible world, eg AWS. It’s not unreasonable to seek, prioritise and expect flexibility in office space. Why _do I_ have to sign a 5 year lease?
  - manigandham 7y ago
    You don't. There are tons of flexible space options and have been for a very long time. WeWork is nothing new, just an expensive and shiny veneer over existing services.
ac2u 7y ago
Disclosure: I work for SquareFoot Unfortunately the real estate market (outside of a few key players) has struggled to change their offerings away from rigid fixed terms to accommodate the need for flexibility. Their long term business models and predictions were based on the revenue streams from those rigid terms, but the segment of the market which requires flexibility above all else is growing fast. However, that demand only had access to office space which specialised in the flexible office space market, meaning your choices are limited to providers which shove you in a generic box room, until you need to move to another bigger generic box room. To square that circle, we launched FLEX by SquareFoot, where we work with clients to pick the terms of their lease with all of the concerns you listed, but without having to restrict their choices to providers which specialise in flexible solutions. It's our way of exposing a lot more commercial real estate inventory that in the past required rigid commitments to the growing segment of the market which needs the flexibility. https://www.squarefoot.com/blog/why-we-launched-flex-by-squarefoot/ https://www.squarefoot.com/blog/why-we-launched-flex-by-squa...