I suspect that if you ask them they will say that there are network effects in that a) you can travel and use other wework spaces with a single membership and b

I suspect that if you ask them they will say that there are network effects in that a) you can travel and use other wework spaces with a single membership and b) you get access to a community to hire from, seek advice from, network with, etc. For me those would not command a large price premium and so am incline to agree with you that it's not very defensible. That said, a capital heavy business like this doesn't need as much defensive power as a tech company. Very few challengers will have access to the capital needed to compete with wework at scale (and there are scaling benefits here) so the competition won't be crippling.