I feel like WeWork would be one of the first companies to go under in case a recession hits the US market. Everyone who works there is probably going to decide en masse that they can do the same things from home or a Starbucks
We (2 of us, expected to grow to 4 quickly) toured WeWork, Spaces (Regus) and a few other one-off spots here in Orange County. Everyone was pretty pricey, like 2500/mo for 100 square feet. WeWork was definitely the worst and was the most overcrowded... but hey they have beer on tap! (sarcasm)
Ultimately we grabbed a lease on Pacific Coast Highway with a sweeping view of the ocean for less with about 3x the room in a freshly renovated building.
I recently became remote and when hunting for a coworking space initially figured I'd just go to one of the WeWork's here (Denver).
I was blown away at the cost of a "hot desk" membership [1]. The least expensive offering was $360/mo. For a desk that's not "yours" and you can't leave anything at.
I wound up going with Novel [2] for $99/mo. Sure printing costs me $0.10/page but other than that it's pretty much a desk.
For fun I checked out the pricing for WeWork SF [3]...
It's not really tech bro's ... I don't encounter those people very often. I think that fraternity style vibe has kinda gone by the wayside. It's everyone else who aren't really technologists but want to get in on the gold rush. The social media marketing companies, the wordpress/magento factories, the crypto people, the uber-for-xyz... there is a lot of noise both literally and figuratively with these groups.
I'm currently "officing" in a WeWork dedicated desk. Out of all the desks immediately around me, I'm the only person working for a "tech" company. There's a building contractor, a couple designers, electrical engineers, and a Realtor, and a marketer for some distillery/alcohol co.
Exactly this. The fellow in the desk right next to me is doing the power/lighting work for a new restaurant going in in my apartment building - which is how I found out that’s what he does, when I ran into him outside my building entrance.
Don't forget the bootcamps. A company I departed about two years ago was in a Regus spot. We watched 4 bootcamps in 3 years pop up for 6-8 weeks at a time, graduate a "class", pack up and leave.
That amusingly describes we work as well - they are clearly marketers above all else - you can tell because they speak in pure buzzword instead of technical aspects at all - even by the standards of overhyped technologies.
Or better yet, realizing spending $60k/year for three years on over-priced month to month office space is not always a better solution than signing an old-school lease.
That doesn't sound too bad if your employee payroll is going to be >= $1M/yr.
To put it another way, I'd rather have a dedicated space for 10 employees than have 10.5 or 11 employees all working from their bedrooms and starbucks.
At least in NYC, it's comparable, but there are a lot of other factors like location and time that goes into it as well.
As a founder, do you want to spend your time negotiating contracts, handling the admin stuff like setting up the internet, electricity, build out if necessary?
To compare the original WeWork location I posted, a 1,000- 1,5000 square feet place would be around $15,000/mo in an older building. But that space would be a lot larger than what WeWork is offering, without any ammenities. At the same time, you can move it to a less convenient location and cut some costs.
It really depends on what the company's needs are at the time and how much they want/need to invest in their own office at the moment. WeWork has month to month contracts for smaller desk spaces so you can adjust as needed. They also offer to build you out offices to customize to your needs.
Many larger companies typically have remote offices at WeWork. For example, at a WeWork we were working at, there was a Blizzard and GitHub office.
You also have to consider that signing an office lease is a long term commitment and can be a lot of hassle. WeWork is probably worth the price for young companies that just want to focus on getting more important things done than renovating and decorating an office that may end up being too small (or too big) after a few months.
I'm working out of the Factory in Berlin for about 100 euro a month. Very nice space facilities, nice people, etc. and it matches my "I might drop in a couple of times a week" type usage. There are loads of co-working spaces here.
I've been in one of the local WeWorks as well (apparently they have 9 offices now in Berlin) and in my experience the space is alright but a bit less so than the Factory. But it did suit the project I was on at the time perfectly and we were there for a few months before we outgrew the space. I'd say it's perfect for seed funded companies or well funded corporate projects. It makes less sense for indivduals looking for a desk as they tend to be comparatively expensive to competitors or coffeeshops. I suspect their corporate revenue is a bit more lucrative.
Sounds about right. Spent a couple years at a WeWork in Los Angeles. It's a luxury, a glorified co-working community. People enjoy the beer. One shake of the economy and everybody will cut WeWork and go back home or somewhere considerably more affordable.
One shake of the economy and everybody will cut WeWork and go back home or somewhere considerably more affordable
Or even free.
When I was in the Seattle tech scene about ten years ago, the State of Washington had free co-working space at the convention center as a way to stimulate local entrepreneurship. The desks were a little strange, but they were free!
Remote coder here, this is my jam. I can get a whole conference room all day and kick back in my local library, which I can lock behind me if I want to jump out to use the bathroom or eat. Granted, this is in Fairbanks, not LA or SF :)
But even living in Boston I never saw the libraries super packed, usually plenty of room in the top-floor old-school reading room at the central branch on Boylston. Maybe not on holidays, but those sucked for cafes too in the city–better to just stay home or not work those days.
Internet can be a crapshoot, but I can do most of my work tethered to cell anyways. I always have that one cafe with awesome WiFi I can go to for downloading OS/IDE updates.
This made me curious so I checked our local library that has study and meeting rooms. But looking at their online calendar, they're all reserved for most of the day.
At least it's nice to know people are using our library.
Libraries are amazing and I'll sing their praises all day, but I have two complaints and they both revolve around pooping, which genuinely distresses me when considering where to work for the day.
1. At a library, when it's poop time, you gotta bag everything and bring it with you. Mildly annoying if you're using a mouse and notebooks etc.
2. If you're in a major metro library, no matter how hard they try to keep it clean, the bathrooms are full of people using the sink as a shower, and the toilets are foul beyond measure.
