<story><title>WeWork Bonds Drop Below Par for First Time Since IPO Filing</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-10/wework-bonds-drop-below-par-for-first-time-since-ipo-filing-k0dutcn0</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>cs702</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s &lt;i&gt;remarkably easy&lt;/i&gt; to make fun of WeWork, given the company&amp;#x27;s high-as-a-kite ambitions, its largely conjectural business model, its dependence on fresh capital for survival, its charismatic CEO’s new-age antics, and its disregard for conventional norms of ethical corporate behavior.[a]&lt;p&gt;But if the IPO of a company as prominent as WeWork fails and the company is unable to raise the fresh capital it needs to stay afloat, we should view that as a &lt;i&gt;warning sign&lt;/i&gt; that capital markets are shifting from &amp;quot;grow at all costs&amp;quot; to &amp;quot;show me the profits.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;The last time we had such a shift, in 2000, it was sudden and cruel. Many fast-growing companies found themselves unable to raise capital. Down-rounds became common. There was a wave of failures. The startup ecosystem went through a long, cold winter.[b]&lt;p&gt;If you are at a money-burning startup, please make sure your company has a viable plan for survival in the event that access to fresh capital is suddenly cut off.[c]&lt;p&gt;--&lt;p&gt;[a] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;twitter.com&amp;#x2F;shiraovide&amp;#x2F;status&amp;#x2F;1161601877517246464&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;twitter.com&amp;#x2F;shiraovide&amp;#x2F;status&amp;#x2F;1161601877517246464&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[b] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Dot-com_bubble#Aftermath&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Dot-com_bubble#Aftermath&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[c] Here&amp;#x27;s a good first-hand account of a fast-growing, money-burning company that managed to survive the post-2000 environment, while most of its competitors went bankrupt: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;a16z.com&amp;#x2F;2010&amp;#x2F;03&amp;#x2F;17&amp;#x2F;the-case-for-the-fat-startup&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;a16z.com&amp;#x2F;2010&amp;#x2F;03&amp;#x2F;17&amp;#x2F;the-case-for-the-fat-startup&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>WeWork Bonds Drop Below Par for First Time Since IPO Filing</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-10/wework-bonds-drop-below-par-for-first-time-since-ipo-filing-k0dutcn0</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>duxup</author><text>It just seems like WeWork took an existing business model of renting office space, went all VC and gathered a bunch of money and sky high evaluation (toss in some creepy insider dealing) ... and ... that&amp;#x27;s it.&lt;p&gt;I know there were some theories on cornering the market, or getting some sort of huge buy in &amp;#x2F; contracts with companies hiring remote workers but for the most part there&amp;#x27;s plenty of office space (at least in my area) and remote work that I see rarely involves the hiring company shelling out extra for expensive office space for remote workers.&lt;p&gt;I wonder what other folks selling office space in the market think about all this?   They seem to operate just fine and financially seem to do so with a lot less risk than WeWork.</text></comment>