# The WeWork IPO – Stratechery by Ben Thompson

<https://stratechery.com/2019/the-wework-ipo/>

- Host: [stratechery.com](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/hosts/stratechery.com/)
- Saved: August 21, 2019 (2019-08-22T03:43:16Z)
- Record: https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/22ac33109e31/
- JSON: https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/22ac33109e31.json

## What Jamie wrote

WeWork filed it’s S-1 to go public and it is drawing a lot of attention. There was a lot written about it, but I could only get time to read one of them so I picked Ben Thompson's. Two other articles worth a look are [WeWork isn’t a tech company; it’s a soap opera - The Verge](https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/15/20806366/we-company-wework-ipo-adam-neumann) which is a bit more salicious, and a detailed article [What is We!? Understanding the WeWork IPO - Byrne Hobart - Medium](https://medium.com/@byrnehobart/what-is-we-understanding-the-wework-ipo-b74f0f1f1b46) by a former banker.

I like Thompson's two-sided Bull and Bear look at WeWork. Comparing it to AWS is good, but I think the demand and adoption curve is so different that the comparison is strained. The references to WeWork Corporate Governance issues are worth noting. After Uber's horrible culture, one has to wonder about a company that seems to have so much self-dealing. Add to that the vast amount of money involved and I wonder if this isn't a future Enron-like story.

## Facts

- Kind: [Page](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/kinds/page/)

## Appears in

- [WT114: Weekly Thing #114 / Aug 24, 2019](https://weekly.thingelstad.com/archive/114/), Featured Links 🏅

## Same host

- [Shopify and the Power of Platforms – Stratechery by Ben Thompson](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/2a73ac70d142/) (stratechery.com, July 13, 2019)
- [The iPhone and Apple’s Services Strategy – Stratechery by Ben Thompson](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/0bd549f71e02/) (stratechery.com, September 12, 2019)
- [Beachheads and Obstacles – Stratechery by Ben Thompson](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/86ec35c2711f/) (stratechery.com, October 3, 2019)
- [The China Cultural Clash – Stratechery by Ben Thompson](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/302514ff1104/) (stratechery.com, October 9, 2019)
- [Google and Ambient Computing – Stratechery by Ben Thompson](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/e82fbceb3c77/) (stratechery.com, October 17, 2019)

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- [Eivind Hjertnes | The “I” in Team](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/ac9688d0d0f5/) (hjertnes.social, August 21, 2019)

## Elsewhere

- Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://stratechery.com/2019/the-wework-ipo/