4 ms·
Anecdotally, no one in SV ever believed in WeWork except Softbank. I couldn't find anyone to take the Bull case on WeWork, whereas at least some people could ar
by Hongwei 7y ago
Anecdotally, no one in SV ever believed in WeWork except Softbank. I couldn't find anyone to take the Bull case on WeWork, whereas at least some people could argue Uber had a real business model that depended on self driving cars.
WeWork, and Theranos before it, are not really the norm in SV. But SV and the tech ecosystem in general has a culture of "money talks," so when Softbank and Kissinger start backing these ridiculous companies, people think "well, good for them?" and move on. Skepticism towards WeWork's model has been the conventional position since Day 1, but no one is going to argue about the validity of Masa Son's dollars.
- skinnymuch 7y agoSoftbank didn’t start investing in WeWork until others had gotten it to a $16B valuation 3-4 years ago. A lot of the investors weren’t SV but some were in its history.
- AceJohnny2 7y ago> others had gotten it to a $16B valuation Which just shows how much "valuation" is bullshit. I would've thought that was clear ever since 37Signals were (sarcastically) valued at $100B in 2009: https://signalvnoise.com/posts/1941-press-release-37signals-valuation-tops-100-billion-after-bold-vc-investment https://signalvnoise.com/posts/1941-press-release-37signals-... (They repeated the joke at least in 2011 and 2015. Maybe 2009 wasn't the first time either)
- skinnymuch 7y agoYeah for sure. I think we are on the same page. I was specifically pointing out the OP seemingly putting SV at odds with WeWork implying WeWork is ridiculous with ego, money, et al, and not SV.