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WeWork (WE): Company Profile, Stock Price, News, Rankings

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WeWork | Fortune

WeWork (WE): Company Profile, Stock Price, News, Rankings | Fortune

Andrew Nusca

At Google I/O 2026, it’s AI, AI, and more AI

/2026/05/20/google-i-o-2026/

Jacqueline Munis

WeWork and Upwork CEOs confirm the Gen Z hiring nightmare is real—but it’s nothing new

/2026/05/19/wework-upwork-ceo-gen-z-jobs-ai-freelance/

Amazon and JPMorgan led the Fortune 500 in returning to the office 5 days a week. Now they’re leading a coworking comeback

/2026/01/27/coworking-comeback-amazon-jpmorgan-wework-flexibility/

The 9-to-5 in a dedicated office is no longer the default—and neither is the full-time employee. As AI reshapes workflows and hybrid trends become more prevalent, companies are treating both physical workspace and workforce composition as strategic levers. Two CEOs at the center of this shift—one reimagining where work happens, one redefining who does it—share how they are shaping workplaces and teams to help businesses stay agile and competitive.

Hayden Brown, President and CEO, Upwork
John Santora, Chief Executive Officer, WeWork
Moderator: Phil Wahba, Senior Writer, Fortune; Co-Chair, Fortune Workplace Innovation Summit

From Static to Fluid: Rethinking Where and How Work Happens

Conferences

Um, so many changes affecting the workplace at the moment. Um, AI, of course, lots of layoffs we're seeing aging population, uh, immigration limits, um, entitlement programs, um, lots going on. So, um, from your respective seats, what is affecting, what is changing your business the most at the moment of, of all these trends reshaping the workplace? So Hayden, why don't we start with you. Sure, uh, thanks for having me. We at Upwork are really in the center of the AI storm right now, so that's, you know, the biggest trend. It's impacting both what talent businesses are looking for in our platform. Uh, small businesses are really looking for us to be the AI diffusion layer that gives them access to AI talent they need. It impacts our enterprise customers who are looking for AI power solutions from us in terms of deploying contingent, uh, workers at scale, and it impacts us as a tech company because we're not only building AI tools, we're also adopting them internally and changing our own workforce as a result so that. Feels like it's really hitting every layer of our business right now in a very exciting way, but also, you know, creating a lot of new questions to answer. And over at WeWork, so we're seeing some real significant growth across the boards, um, in all our offices and in all levels of, of occupancy. Real estate is becoming more of a. The, the flex world is becoming more of a critical component and long term structural shift in how real estate is held, right? The, the, the, the investments in 10 year leases, 15-year leases with lots of capital, we've given the flex world has given the ability for companies to balance that out and not always be in that. And then we're seeing tremendous growth from the AI sector. And from all the startups, so we have 220 AI firms in our spaces today. Lots of them are startups. We have the biggest, but we have all the startups, and, and we just see continued growth in that entrepreneurial business across the board. So it's an exciting time. So a greater percentage of the labor force right now is on contract or part-time. Um, Will that be a permanent change and how does that affect your respective plans? So Hayden, how about we start with you? Yeah, this is, this is a permanent fixture of the workforce. Uh, the percentage of workers who are in the freelance economy or the contingent economy has continued to grow every single year for probably the decade plus that we've been doing an annual study on that, and the reasons for that are several. One of the things that's very unique right now is. Freellancers are increasingly choosing to work at the flexible model because it gives them actually more economic security. It insulates them from some of the, uh, uncertainty and volatility in the market, and that's a reason why when you actually talk to Gen Z. 83% of Gen Z say working a freelance career is actually more valuable than a traditional job, and 53% of Gen Z are actively freelancing. So we are seeing, I would say, at every successive generation, more and more participation in contingent of freelance work and a greater recognition that this is what gives people kind of the freedom, the flexibility, and empowerment to run their career on their own terms. And does that attract more people who might want a space at a WeWork? I think it, I think it absolutely does, and I think the So we say that the workplace is becoming more flexible but more accountable, right? So when I look at my, our direct workforce, so I say you need to be in 3 or 4 days a week in the office and then the 5th day you can be from anywhere, but life gets in the way. Right, there's childcare, there's parental care. You've got to go to a doctor. When was the last time anybody could see a doctor on a Saturday, right, or a dentist or, or get your car fixed. All life gets in the way. You have to give people that flexibility, and if you don't, they're going to migrate to some other company or some other way of working. And we continue to see the freelancers, we actually had two. Jobs last week that people decided they originally accepted and then decided no I kind of like this flexibility of free freelancing um so so yeah it's a different that's the old contract like I had where I spent 47 years at Cushman and Wakefield and you progress up. That's no longer here, that's long gone. But the commitment from both sides isn't the same, and I think as companies stopped with pensions and all kinds of benefits, the employees said, well then why do I need to go through this? Well, I'm gonna move for more salary, more flexibility, more optionality. I wanted to go back to AI because it's probably been what, 3 minutes since it was mentioned, but um. Uh, just in the last few weeks, you know, we see headlines, this CEO or that CEO, they're usually in tech, say, oh, AI is going to briefly lead to 20-30% unemployment, and then we're going to figure it out and it'll all be rosy. Now, of course, if you've studied history and have a bit of humanities, you know that 30% unemployment is a recipe for a lot of things that would not be good for business. So Uh, at all, it just seems sometimes that a little HQ is lacking over there, but anyway, um, what can companies do to reassure workers that AI is not going to lead to this massacre and help them get the training they need to adapt to it and maybe sort of change this. I mean, I'm, I'm actually amazed that they think say things like that, uh, are constructive, but, uh. Yeah, I mean the hype is real and I think the fear mongering is a real challenge because it does create a lot of this, not just uncertainty, but I think employees are really wondering what their place is, you know, are they gonna have a future, etc. But the data is actually very different. So yes, we do see some companies doing layoffs, and I, I call it AI washing those layoffs, saying like, oh, it's AI, we're getting all these AI benefits. Quite often I think it's just plain, you know, tightening belts and responding to a volatile economy in a time where companies need to be more lean. But at the same time we actually have done some studies on our own platform where um we've measured what can AI agents do alone, what can they do with humans, and what can humans do alone, and even for the smallest, simplest tasks, think of things that can be done for a couple $100 we see that agents complete those tasks 70% better if they have human oversight. And that really is, I think, just one indication of the fact that this technology is very powerful, but it still needs human intervention to be usable and useful. We're also seeing some really interesting trends where for the first time in 2025 we heard our client side on our platform saying, you know. I used to hire for the most technical person or the person with the deepest domain experience. Now I actually want to hire for someone who has judgment, creativity, problem solving, someone who can move and learn at the pace that technology is moving at. And I think both of these things are good signs that there are robust and growing roles for people. We see AI skills growing more than 40% year over year in our business. Some of them are up 200% plus. There's new demand out there. It's just that the demand looks different and the roles are changing. And so I think the fear mongering around job losses and all of that is, um, a factor, but it doesn't actually, it's not actually supported in a lot of the data that shows jobs are growing in a lot of areas. The work is changing, and for people who can adapt, um, there's gonna be a lot of opportunity for them. Yeah, there's no, there's no question that the. The entry level higher is under pressure, right? And, and, and the young talent coming out of schools they're challenged by AI can do the research, AI can do some of the basic tasks, but it's incumbent upon all of us to bring that talent in and to educate the talent and, and teach them to be the future growth of all our organizations. Um, AI is not going to provide empathy and leadership and mentoring and all those skills that you need to lead a company for a company to be successful. So I do think there's clearly an over rotation on the layoffs on the holding back on hires, but I think it ultimately balances out. We go through these cycles and have and, and, and every time there's a new technology change or an industry. Uh, change, so, um, I think it, I think it does balance out. I think companies become more productive, which means they make more money and they grow and they hire more people, but this is a tough time to be in that middle that as we, as it, as it balances out. And if more workers are freelance and unattached, how do they get the training that they need to stay relevant? Well, an amazing reality of the freelance economy is freelancers are intrinsically motivated to self-skill and upskill much faster than in-house employees, and we see this in the data. Uh, freelancers typically have been adopting AI tools at a faster rate. They're more confident with those tools, and it makes sense because they've gotta have those skills to put food on the table, whereas employees, you know, have a different calculus in terms of what needs to get done every day. So we actually see large and small businesses turning more to the freelance economy right now because they do need the people with those AI native skills with those capabilities and often it they don't have them in-house, uh, training people to get there is an option, but that can be slow and expensive and so they're really looking at redesigning. In their workforce to have a bigger portion of the workforce be flexible and contingent so they can access on demand skills, uh, spin up and down new projects at the pace they need to, and, and relatively to that shrinking their full-time employee base just because the benefits of having a larger contingent workforce are become even more apparent. I couldn't, I couldn't agree more with you. Um, the other thing is. We as leaders need to give them those tools. We need to train. We need to bring them on board. We need to, you know, for, for us in our world, we did 52,000 networking events last year in our spaces. Those events help from an education standpoint but also help them meet the people they can learn from, learn with, and grow with, so. Uh, I, I, I think the world has changed, that, that the freelancer is such an important part of our world and will be going forward. Of course you know that does beg the question about benefits. I think millions of Americans stay in their jobs for their health insurance and not because they love the job, so I, I wonder if that doesn't affect um. If there was, you know, healthcare that was more affordable for freelance workers if we see more freelance workers, but, uh, I don't know what, what, what do you think impedes more people from choosing that route? Yeah, I mean how sad is it to stay in a job you hate just to get the health care that you need, you know, we don't want that as a society. Um, the good news is on our platform we see freelancers actually earning more and more and actually earning a premium to what they were their, uh, full time jobs if they were doing a full time job before because they're able to really monetize these highly valuable skills. AI skills are commanding a 40% premium in the market on our platform. Uh, and that's just one indication of how I think people can really create economic conditions that let them, if they need to pay for healthcare, other things, of course, do that, uh, and have the lifestyle they want while also maintaining flexibility and freedom, which is so important to people. So one thing that I guess is self interested I'm fascinated by is is how much later we're all gonna work because who knows if there's Social Security waiting for us um uh so longevity is uh there's we're all living longer hopefully that means better as well but. What will this look like, um, in a few years? Are we going to start to see a lot more people not go from 40 hours a week to zero and then sort of when they get to their mid-60s to a few years? Of, of working like what does this, where are we going when you factor in, uh, social programs but also the benefits and, and demographics and, uh, longevity where do you think we're going? I, I see and we see in our spaces that the, the reinvention of the, the 60 year old, the 65 year old, they're, they're becoming consultants, they're out there working, they're, they're helping to train talent, I think. It's, it's, it's actually wonderful to see now. I took on a second career. I mean, I spent my entire career at Cushman-Wakefield for 47 years, and I said I'm gonna do this, this is something different, and I was ready to hang it up, but it's one we're healthier, longer, right? We want to work, we wanna. Minds to go and they have something to give back and I love seeing that. I'll see a, you know, a 60 something year old and, and then a bunch of young talents in the same office in room and it's like this is really cool. It's a great, great next step or or last phase of work. Yeah, and I add to that, you know, this idea that we do all this learning, you know, through college and in our early twenties and then it's about just being employees or workers after that is, is totally not true anymore. Instead it's all about like lifeline, lifetime learning, reinvention on the job, learning from the work you're doing, and we see that a lot in our platform where when we talk to freelancers, one of the top reasons they say they love freelancing is because they're constantly able to move into new places, try new things, work with different clients, and that becomes this continuous kind of refreshment and learning opportunity for them, which is very dynamic. I think that's gonna become more predominant. We really see this side hustle becoming the main event for. So many folks as they, whether they're Gen Z and they're seeing that they can have this portfolio career or whether they are tired of doing, you know, the thing they've done for so many years and they want more freedom and flexibility to freelance on their own, there's so many reasons why I think people have more options now and that's amazing at a time when, you know, it can feel scary. Instead, actually people have a lot more options for how they can earn and how they can learn through, uh, these types of freelance jobs. They also bring those soft skills that are really needed, right? And, and that's the part that's missing, um, the ability to train, to lead, the empathy and, and that's, that's something that the older generation has that, that needs to be taught. Yeah, a couple of years ago I interviewed, uh, the former, now, uh, CEO of AARP, and the discussion was job shortage, and she said, old people, why don't the companies get it? Hire old people, we're reliable and we work hard, and anyway, I guess, you know, we're, we're, um, and it's as I 65 gets closer and closer every day, it's like it's not that old after all, you know. No, it's a new 45 and when you were 2065 was like, oh, they're fossils, but anyway. Uh, perspective changes, um. Do you think we're ever gonna get to an era where um. Even younger people might say they'll hit their 40 45 hour work week by splitting themselves at 3 different employers, 4 different employers, and are we, are we going to an era of much more flexibility on the part of workers but also on, on companies, or. Uh, and this idea of somebody being a full-time employee for quite a while, is that, is that, uh, Phil, I think that era is here. I think it's already happening. I mean, when we talk to young folks today, I mean, I'm sure you guys like have this too, they have their blog or their YouTube channel or the book they're writing on the side or the consulting that they're doing. I mean, they already are really living into this portfolio career vision. I think, um, you know, it's kind of our, our social norms and our. Kind of idea of what's happening with the career has yet to catch up with that, but the reality on the ground is people are building these, these multifaceted careers already. Yeah, we, we see it. I see it in my own children, and I, I see it across the board that, and for us we see a lot of the young talent comes in. They start as a community associate. They grow there a little bit, and then they move to other companies and there's no longer. And, and I think that's great because they learn different skills at each location, each different thing that they do. So in our, in our last, uh, minute together, say something optimistic for young people, people in their twenties. Why should they be optimistic about their career and job prospects? Well, um. I, I think the opportunities out there if you embrace the tools that we have, whether it be the AI tools and all the other tools they're going to be tremendous. This next growth period, if you look historically when new technology gets introduced, the growth period is amazing. There's that bumpy ride and then it takes off and you just think, look back over history and so, um, and the other part of it is. That you know the baby boomers are retiring, so there's an opportunity to fill those spots going forward. So, um, I would look at it with bright eyes if I was 25. Great. So on, on that note, uh, thank you both for joining us today and, uh, here's to young people and old people alike and everybody in the middle. Thank you.

Adam Neumann, Founder, Flow; Co-Founder and Former CEO, WeWork In conversation with: Michal Lev-Ram, FORTUNE

Brainstorm Tech 2023: Go With The Flow 

We're going to keep moving along. Our next guest has redefined many boundaries, brick mortar and then some seven years ago, he made his debut on our stage when his fast growing and much hype company was rumored to go public and I think we probably all followed the roller coaster ride of what happened next. Adam Newman is the co founder of wework, a company that pioneered the concept of co working reconfigured the workplace landscape. Adam stepped down as CEO of the company in 2019 after we worked out to shelve plans for an IPO and now Adam is on a new journey. His current mission is to transform the soulless experience of renting, find a solution for America's fractured housing market. So to talk past, present and future, please welcome back to brainstorm tech's. Adam Newman have a bit. Um Adam, thank you for joining us. I'm going to start with a very basic question, but I think one that probably a lot of people are wondering and that's just why are you here? You know, obviously we invited you to come speak. That's part of the reason, but I want to know why are you back in front of this particular audience. And why are you at it again with another company? I think first of all, thank you for having me. And always nice to see a great face in the audience. And Park City is beautiful. I've never been here in the summer. It's unbelievable. Very nice to see. I think in life, we go through many journeys and as we go through these journeys, we have different lessons that we learn. But if we learned our lessons and we don't get a chance to do it again, then I don't think you can really apply it. And I think when things happen in your life, if you took time to think about it and learn from it and then you apply it, that's a great journey. But if you actually did learn from it and you stopped and something happened, it becomes a tragedy. So I'm here because I love entrepreneurship. And I think this category and this problem is real and we're excited to do our part in trying to solve it. So we're going to get into flow and what you're doing with it today, what your hopes are. But I want to talk about those lessons learned first of all and just ask you, you know, you've had quite a bit of distance and time now from wework. I looking back with the space that you have and the perspective, what do you think were the biggest mistakes? What are the biggest learnings that you take with you today. So when I stepped down in 2019, I actually took the time to think a lot and had a great team around me that were able to talk and discuss all the different things and there are many lessons. But first of all, I would say I'm extremely proud in what we did and we work, I'm proud of the team. We, today we work has over 700 locations. It's in 39 countries, it's in over 70 languages. And I don't think there's a person on the planet who is building a new office space today, who's not thinking what would or wouldn't we work? Think so. I think that part is great as far as the lessons and there are many and we don't have enough time today. This is a short interview, but I'll focus, I'll focus on two that come to mind right now. One as an entrepreneur, there are many things you don't control. One of the only things you control is who you surround yourself with and not just who you surround yourself with. But exactly what kind of people they are. I think in we work, we're surrounded by very smart people, but moving forward, what I surround myself is not just very smart people, but also people are very comfortable telling me what they think. And when you need to tell someone what you think and they don't agree with you, you need to have the courage and you need to be empowered to go back again and say it again and again and again. So my first lesson surround yourself, not only with the best people and the smartest people, but also the ones who are going to tell you what they think. And it means if you don't listen, they're going to keep at it until you either never see them again or until you agree. That's one, the second one is listening. The first lesson doesn't work without the second one. After when I stepped down from my work, I had the opportunity to become an investor and our family offices invested in over 50 different companies. And I got to be the investor giving the entrepreneur advice and seeing that the entrepreneur is not listening and getting a little frustrated until I realized that maybe this is part of how I used to act. And I realized that part of being a great entrepreneur is not just listening, but listening to the hard truth, listening to the things you don't want, they have to choose to choose who you surround yourself with and become a great listener and great listeners like to listen to what they don't want to hear, not what they want to hear. So do you if I'm to like put all that together? Do you think that your investor at the time at wework could have played a larger role in not helping to create what was a spectacular rise and then a spectacular fall. I mean, what was your role there? And what was your investor's role? Again, as I said before, I am so proud of what we did in Monday night's quarterbacking. Is that what you call and doing that now with the investors and what they should have done? I can tell you one thing, no one from the outside ever knows what happens on the inside. And again, I think very few people disrupt categories and very few companies reinvent categories. Office is the second largest category in the world. And I'm very proud of what was achieved. Ok, I want to ask you about um my understanding is that there were, there were several components of your exit package which was controversial at the time. Um But one of those components was also a non compete agreement. And when does that expire? Our non compete expired? It's actually noncompeting and unsolicited and that expires October 30th of this year. Ok. So what happens then does this mean that you with your new company which we will get to in a second compete with? We work to answer that question. I would have to explain what flow is because I think the answer is slightly more complex. So for those of you who don't know flo is building a, I heard the mission, you said before, I'm not sure that's actually our mission, but it sounded interesting correct that. So good. So good. We're not ready to come up with that yet, but flo is building a consumer facing residential brand and we're doing it through integrating technology community and a world class operating team that puts the resident first. And just some numbers for those of you who don't know, 66% of young adults in this country are renters and they spend 34% of their total income on rent. And yet there's no rent, no promise, no elevated experience in in the past Howard Schultz, who was a great entrepreneur and also a company that I really admire came up with the concept of the third place. He would say the first place was the home. The second place was the office and the third place was Starbucks where you could get a cup of coffee, meet someone and be surrounded by other people. I think in a pre Corona world that was amazing. I think in a post Corona world, what Flo is observed is that it's not anymore the first place or the third place. It's the one place and in the one place, you have to integrate everything our residents, which we survey regularly. 70% of them spend between 2 to 5 days working from home in a reality where work from home and living has become one a place where our home is changed and our relationship to our home has changed. I don't think a lot of us think there's anything more important than that. The new solution for the future of living needs to be more the one place as opposed to the first or the third. And that's what flow is going to do. To answer your question. You said is flow. I think what you're asking is what's flo going to do well and does flow, where does, where does we work end? And where does flow begin? And where do they dovetail? Compete? So you're asking is flow going to compete? I think with not, I think I know in a world where the one place is the new solution where work and living has been integrated, we're not ready actually for these solutions because these buildings have not been designed for that. The operating systems are not there, the tech is not there, the teams are not there to run it. I think flow has only two choices, compete or partner. OK. So compete is one of the choices comp is one of the choices or partner. OK. All right. Well, maybe it would help if you, you know, I think we get kind of the philosophy and the need in the, in the market that you see for flow. But give us a bit more of a concrete breakdown of what is the business model? Do you own these buildings or not necessarily? And how does the company make money? So I'm going to add one more thing and then I'm going to answer that. In May, the surgeon general came up with a study defining loneliness as an epidemic in the United States. He was saying that it's going to cause loneliness, it's going to cause mental illnesses, it's going to cause early death. He was giving all these different definitions and quoting tremendous amount of study. We live in a world where we're so connected. We've never been more disconnected even though we love technology and flow is tech first and product. First, we use technology as a tool to achieve the mission and the goals that we have not as the end goal. And with that in mind, it has to all be brought together perfectly. So we think the best way to do that business model, we own 3000 apartments that we're running. We have over 150 employees and a majority of engineers, product designers, both digital and physical. We're actually looking for a lot more great employees. And the business model that we have is a vertically integrated system. We own the buildings, we operate the buildings, we build the technology, we build a community and we build the teams that are running them. And when you bring all of that together, the moment a resident is happier, more fulfilled and stays longer. The buildings churns goes down, churn is the amount of times people leave a building and the building is immediately more profitable. Happier residents more fulfilled residents equals more profitable buildings. We've already proven this on our first two buildings. And this is something that in real estate you don't see often because real estate is not treated as a consumer product. Even though it really is. The reason it's not treated as a consumer product is because it's a supply challenge, not a demand challenge. You raised $100 million from Mark Andreesen. Correct. No, no. Sorry how much? Um, 350 million, excuse me, I should have looked at my notes. 350 million. That's even more mind boggling. I want to hear about just very briefly, tell us about just why you think this is a good match. And Dr Horowitz and, and you, and also curious to hear, you know, not everybody gets a second chance and not on this kind of level, of course, 3 50 million. Um Why do you think Mark believed in you and wanted to put his money in you? So a few things first, we spoke about lessons learned and we said one of them is surround yourself with the right people. Mark and Ben and A 16 Z are unbelievable investors. They're actually investors who started as entrepreneurs, they run multiple businesses and created multiple businesses when they're in the boardroom and we're discussing, not only is no one holding anything back, the kind of advice we're getting has a lot to do with building a long term business also. And this is something amazing about Mark. After our first board meeting, Mark called me the next day and he goes, Adam, I wanted to give you some feedback about something I heard in the board meeting. And I said, of course. And then he gave me the list of all the things that he disagrees with. Not the things he said in the board meeting with. There are a lot of other things that he thought about afterwards and he said, I don't want to come too hard, but that's what I think. And I said, Mark the deal we made when we did this deal is that you always tell me exactly what you think and I will do my best to be a great listener. And that's been the relationship ever since they've turned out to be even greater partners than I would imagine specifically to what you're asking. I am sure there are people who deserve to get investments more than me. I am sure there's a lot of people who deserve, who don't get it. And I hope because I really believe in entrepreneurship that the people who deserve to get this investment will get it because I also think that to build the future, we need start ups and we need innovation. And that's what this conference is all about. I think it shouldn't matter what race they come from, what gender they come from, where they come from. Nothing should matter and everybody should get their opportunity specifically why I got the second chance that you should ask a six OK. Question from the audience. Please raise your hand. We'll bring a mic over to you quickly. We've got one right here, Mark Johnson CTO. Stand together. Um Sorry, what's your regulatory barriers? Do you think you're going to face in building flow? So great question. There's a lot of basic things in residential real estate that are already a effect. So we have to follow all the rules that exist. It's actually a very advanced category when it comes to that. But a very early category when it comes to actual innovation or technology or giving a new experience, whatever they are, we take them extremely seriously, but they change between state to state and it depends if you're owning the building, building, the building, operating the building and then flow starts there. But over time probably grows outside of these multi family buildings. There's tremendous opportunity to where this brand can go to. Do you do you by the way? Um I know one of the knocks um after this one was, was published um was in how you described the company and earlier on too, you know, the fact that um the valuation was where it was and that uh you know, there was yes there was tech involved, but it was real estate. Are you comfortable today? Describing flow as a real estate company or what is it, what category is it in. I can't answer the end without answering the beginning. I'm a little bored of talking about the past. But if, if we must, our valuation was given by the most sophisticated values in the world. It was Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley, it was Softbank and Benchmark and all the other investors that are considered the best investors in the world. So when people knock our valuation, they're really knocking all the people who gave that valuation evaluation is something that's given by a person that wants to actually invest the money. Putting that aside. We used to describe we were many different ways, flow is very comfortable being a residential consumer facing real estate company. It is the largest asset class in the world. It has no brand that we know of and prop tech in that category is still very early because whenever you solve these problems, everyone is solving them as a single point problem as opposed to actually solving them as a vertical integration problem. So the way we're going after it is going to take longer, we're going to have to build a very solid foundation. But when we do, I think our solution is going to actually help solve problems like loneliness community. And I'll say one more thing. And I think we live in this world today where I'm not sure we need more followers. I think we need more friends and I think we can all appreciate a lot more face to face interaction and maybe a little less face time. Well, Adam, we appreciate you coming, getting dressed up for us, no T shirts today. Um But thank you so much for coming and looking forward to seeing what you do with flow. Thank you for having me.

[MUSIC PLAYING] ANDREW NUSCA: You've got a lot of customers, a lot of different kinds of customers. Could you talk about that a little bit? And try, again, let's try to ground this a little bit. Why do people come to you? ADAM NEUMANN: So we like to call them members, not customers. So if you're to-- you can be any one of the above. If you're starting a business, you're one person. You're by yourself. ANDREW NUSCA: Sure. ADAM NEUMANN: It's a hard thing to do. Anybody here who's started a business knows it's very difficult. First thing you need to-- what is my business? Who is funding me? Where am I getting my sales? Who is going to work with me? There are 1,000 questions you need to ask. You come into WeWork. You take a space for $600 a month, and you're already part of a community. You have at least 1,000 other people around you that are ready to help. And because you're all part of the same thing, they're actually excited to do-- to be that. And that's on the smallest level. On the largest level, you might be Salesforce. You might be Facebook. You might be Dell. And you have HQs, headquarters all over the world. You have satellite offices all over the world. And you need these-- you need a solution that's better than just the old way that people used to do it when they build a global business. They might need us also. ANDREW NUSCA: They're coming to you for culture, do you think? Facebook, for example, very kind of well-known culture. We talked about-- I talked with Diane Greene earlier about Google's culture. They come to you because they want different culture, better culture? ADAM NEUMANN: Corporate America in general has a cultural challenge today. And you know it if you just need a churn of employees that are younger than 30. If you just saw all the different things that are happening in the different organizations, you would know that culture America-- culture today in corporate America is a very big deal. Do we give you the culture? We can't, because if you don't have a mission-driven business, we can create a mission for you. But if you have a mission-driven business, then we can help talk about it. We can help make sure that it's communicated, not just through your words and not just to your investors, but also, how does your space feel? What is it all about? Are you part of something greater than yourself? And that, we can help large or small companies with. ANDREW NUSCA: And I felt that. So I visited you folks in one of your New York offices. The culture of WeWork is pretty-- the kind of culture that WeWork has on display is pretty well known. You've got beer taps. You've got fancy offices. You've got small, individual desks. You've got walled-off glass desks. There's a lot of diversity in what you're offering these companies. Why wouldn't they just copy all of the aesthetics? Why wouldn't they install a beer tap in their hallway and put all-glass offices-- it's so in vogue, right? Yeah, let's open office the heck out of our company. REBEKAH NEUMANN: So I think the one thing is you're focusing a little bit on the physical, which is also very important. And a lot of time has been put into that. Our co-founder, Miguel McKelvey, who's a brilliant designer and architect, has helped really kind of mastermind what our spaces look like. But I think you have to take it back a few steps. Adam grew up on a kibbutz, Miguel in a commune with only moms. All the dads took off. And I grew up in New York-- it's not as exciting-- but kind of studying spirituality, Buddhism, yoga, what have you, my entire life. And it's the cross-section of our backgrounds and our interests that I think have kind of led to the ethos and mission of this company. And I think when members come in, they might be looking for free beer or coffee or an office or someone to collaborate with. But once they spend some time, they actually see that there's another energy that's happening there, which is leading to another level of fulfillment and success. And being able to lean on other people who will support you, and who are rooting for you, and who are working all hours of the night, and who understand what it is to wear multiple hats and do multiple things and have many trades, I think that's creating something really meaningful for them. [MUSIC PLAYING]

Insights: WeWork Founders: Community is Our Business

WeWork Founders: Community is Our Business

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