Sure, fine, I guess? The thing is that if you invested billions of dollars in WeWork at a $47 billion valuation back in, literally, July, you probably weren’t like “hmm yes this is a solid mid-tier office landlord with good unit economics and interesting expansion opportunities.” Back then WeWork was planning to “encompass all aspects of people’s lives, in both physical and digital worlds.” Back then WeWork had recently changed its name from WeWork, which encompasses only one aspect of people’s lives, to the We Company, which, sure, more encompassing.
If a company encompasses all aspects of people’s lives then there is really no limit to how valuable it can be. Facebook Inc. encompasses most aspects of most people’s lives these days and is worth approximately one kajillion dollars. WeWork aimed to encompass even more aspects—“We’re like Facebook, only you also live here,” is how I once paraphrased it—so it was potentially worth, I don’t know, three kajillion dollars? It wasn’t there yet—it mostly encompassed some co-working spaces—but that’s why you invest in startups; you are making bold far-seeing bets on potential greatness.
