The We Company — WeWork, WeLive, and WeGrow — has a single joint mission: “to elevate the world’s consciousness.”
While WeWork was born as a coworking brand, based on the collaborative culture of coworking that enables entrepreneurs to come together and get their ideas off the ground, there are many thousands more coworking spaces across the U.S., and the world. What has long distinguished WeWork is Neumann, his ambitions, and his ideas, which focus on something bigger.
Neumann describes WeWork as a “community company”. “We are here in order to change the world,” he says. “Nothing less than that interests me.”
Despite continuing to lose money — WeWork lost $1.9 billion last year — the We Company is now America’s most highly valued start-up, at $47 billion, and the company has filed paperwork to begin the process of an IPO.
Building community and its slogan, ‘Make a Life, Not Just a Living’, has always been WeWork’s mission. However, its real world experiences have often fallen short of its promise. Numerous times, WeWork employees and executives have questioned whether the company’s culture is itself one worth spreading.
Will WeWork work? The company is working to do fewer things better. Newmann is open to change. But he isn’t giving up on his grandest visions.
