Everything across the board

Startup Corner

We(don’t)Work

Founded in 2010, WeWork used to be one of the most valuable startups— worth $47 billion USD. But it hasn’t been the smoothest road since then. Founder Adam Neumann was on a mission to grow the startup as quickly as possible, which often came at the expense of profits. Let’s just say Neumann’s ‘unorthodox’ management style got him removed from the company at the same time as its IPO in 2019, and it has only been downhill from there. WeWork filed for bankruptcy this week.

What happened? Investors continued to pour money into the business despite terrible profitability (which was disguised by Neumann’s charisma and quick growth). Over $13 billion in lease obligations, crippling debt, investors pulling out, and oh— years of giving away free beers in offices… these factors finally culminated in the company going to zero.

Takeaway: The post-COVID world is dominated by remote and flexible work, and it may seem like the fall of the biggest flexible-office company is a sign that things are changing. They’re not. Most of the empty WeWork locations will be taken over by other companies, and people aren’t going to start finding new places to work. That’s because this failure doesn’t mark a change in consumer demand, but rather in how companies like WeWork are structured. The bankruptcy has been a wakeup call for competitors: time to rethink lease structures (less long-term leases, more favourable agreements with building management) and business models. It seems that, even if the free beer is gone, flexible work environments are here to stay.

Read more about WeWork here.

In Other News

• Lisbon Web Summit is this week, bringing together 70,000+ of the most influential figures in tech (link)

Words You Should Know

Product-Market Fit

Definition: Product-market fit occurs when a startup's product resonates with and fulfills an underserved customer segment. It is demonstrated through significant user adoption and engagement. Founders know they have achieved product-market fit when customers actively use the product and exhibit excitement about its value.

Significance: Product-market fit marks a crucial milestone that validates whether your startup's solution satisfies market demand. When product-market fit is reached, companies can propel into periods of exponential, scalable growth. Seeking product-market fit should guide product design and development decisions rather than surface-level metrics like number of users or downloads. However, founders sometimes mistakenly claim product-market fit prematurely before demonstrating customer loyalty. They may also overly fixate on a narrow customer segment instead of laying the foundation to expand to a broader market over time. Ultimately, achieving true product-market fit is always going to be an iterative process, one that requires constant customer interaction and product adjustments.

Read more about product-market fit here.

Jake’s Take: Product-market fit, in my opinion, can be very subjective. Confirmation bias makes it easy for us to think that we’ve achieved such a fit because that’s what we want to tell our brains, even if the metrics don’t agree. Try to back subjective opinions with as many tangible indicators as possible!

Founder Spotlight

Cole Kiefer: Across the Board

I was recently interviewed in an episode of Across the Board (formerly called Market Saints), a podcast by my good friend and colleague Cole Kiefer. I urge you to check out the show to hear everything from market news to financial literacy tips to interviews with other interesting people.

In addition to speaking with him about entrepreneurship and my journey, I asked him why he got into content creation and what he’s learned. Here is what he had to say:

“Oh great, another bro with a podcast. It really does seem to have become a 21 year old guy’s solution to therapy, or at least that’s the running joke.

Why did I decide to break into the content creation game? Beyond loving hearing myself talk, a podcast in my opinion was an awesome way to amplify voices that otherwise wouldn’t have had a platform to be heard.

Jokes aside, I’ve always been interested in the concept of building a brand, a repertoire or portfolio of work, not even with monetization in mind. I started the podcast as more of a passion project with a financial focus, ultimately, it was a great mirage to push me to expand my boundary and knowledge on the financial markets, especially if I was going to talk about them (even at a high level).

Then birthed ‘market saints’, which at the time, was a great combination of the markets focus, and the St Andrews prototypical naming procedure of smacking the term ‘saints’ on anything (We both attend the University of St Andrews, if that wasn’t clear).

However, overtime, my interest and vision for the podcast shifted to a far more macro level, which resulted in the new rebrand ‘Across The Board’. With the rebrand, I aim to take a far higher level approach to podcasting, interviewing anybody with an interest, passion, or project in any particular field. Whether it be local startups, students on their dissertations / PHDs, or a sports debate, I want my podcast topics to be: ‘Across The Board.’”

Key Dates

• (London)

  • Techstars Accelerator (applications close November 29th)

  • Founders Factory (rolling admissions)

  • Tech Scaler (applications open for January ‘24 cohort)

• (New York) 

  • Founder Institute (accelerator applications close December 11th)

• (San Francisco)

  • Y Combinator (late applications accepted until January)

What I’m Reading

• How to Open an Online Business (link)

• Contrarian Thinking Newsletter (link)

• Rich Dad Poor Dad (link)