Why was WeWork positioning itself as a technology company.
If you’ve listened to enough of me wittering on by now, you’ll know that my definition of a technology business is one where the primary method of delivering value to the customer is digital in nature.
WeWork claimed it was a technology company because it: a) “relied heavily on technology to manage space”, b) “had community and networking platforms”, c) “invested heavily in analytics”, and d) “wanted to sell that platform on”.
It’s insane that otherwise sensible people supported them to bloat that business to be worth $47 billion.
Those four points describe “business generally”. If you have assets, you need a computer system to manage it. If you have customers, you should be communicating with them digital. If you’re trading, you have data and need to service and understand it. And if you have digital IP, you might want to leverage it.
The kicker, the thing that made it not a technology company – the PRIMARY method of delivering value was about bricks, glass, and mortar. It wasn’t digital.