Scott Galloway, best-selling author, tech-industry pundit, and professor of marketing at New York University’s Stern School of Business analyzed and slammed WeWork’s recently published S-1. While We’s mission is “to elevate the world’s consciousness”, Galloway argues that the company’s prospectus mission is “to dampen our consciousness ahead of thesSh*tshow that is ‘The Story of Us: We’”.
The blog post, titled WeWTF, takes a jab at We’s nomenclature, how it tries to pass itself as a tech company instead of a real estate company to be valued higher, its invented metrics, Adam’s cash out of over $700M, and the company’s ridiculous valuation, among many other things.
On We’s valuation, here’s what Galloway has to say, arguing that the $47 billion valuation is nothing more than just an illusion:
“Insane. Seriously loco. Ok, let’s assume WeWTF is onto something, better than peer IWG or Hertz. But is this firm, trading at 26x revenues, superior to Amazon, which trades at 4x revenues? There appears to be no scale effects, as losses have kept pace with revenue growth. There is little pricing power, as they are still a mole on the elephant of commercial real estate. There is no defensible IP, no technology, no regulatory moats, no network effects, and no flywheel effect (the ancillary businesses are stupid, just stupid).”
Totally worth the read.
