Let's start on page #3... of WeWork's S-1. That's the required tell-all document a company must file before an IPO, telling potential investors key details on the biz. And that's where things got awkward, talking about "the energy of We" (WeWork's actual holding company name). The 9-year-old, $47B huge-icorn with 604K work-stations worldwide wants to IPO soon and this unveil makes it feel like a sorority sect. Here's the surprising stuff:
- The history: “Our mission is to elevate the world’s consciousness” — that's how they begin telling it.
- The mantra: WeWork channeled its inner-yoga and made one for its IPO — "We dedicate this to the energy of we — greater than any of us, but inside each of us." We'll just let that sit.
- The pledge word: "Community." That term was dropped 150 times.
- The Co-Founder inequity: There are technically 3 (2 are married to each other), but CEO Adam Neumann will control at least 50% of the voting power. And his shares in the company are worth the most: $4.1B.
__There are 2 key numbers to work into your head...__Investors are curious about the $905M WeWork lost in just the first half of this year, 25% more than the same period last year (but it is on pace to double revenues). But WeWork wants you to focus on the 2 years time it takes individual locations to turn profitable, and WeWork has opened over 100 so far this year.
Forget co-working... WeWork is now "space-as-a-service." WeWork says it pioneered the term — The play on "software-as-a-service" is WeWork's attempt to appear like a tech company so investors will judge it like a tech company and be cool with the huge losses it's making now. It does though reflect all the things We is now doing outside of coworking:
- WeLive: "Community"-inspired hotel-like full-time living spaces that host 12K "Meetups" daily worldwide.
- WeGrow: Schools, because WeWork wants to grow kids' "souls" (their words).
- Ark: A global real estate platform to acquire real estate.