HIBT Lab! WeWork: Miguel McKelvey

How I Built This with Guy Raz

Guy Raz | Wondery

Business

4.8 • 31.1K Ratings

🗓️ 21 April 2022

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When Miguel McKelvey was first featured on How I Built This in 2017, his company was growing at an astounding rate. WeWork was considered the unicorn of unicorns. But after reaching a $47 billion valuation in 2019, WeWork’s tide began to turn. Investors raised concerns about the company’s rapid expansion and unsustainable spending. Miguel’s co-founder Adam Neuman faced accusations of mismanagement and was forced to resign. The company withdrew a long-anticipated IPO filing, and not long after, Miguel left the company he had worked so hard to build.

Since then, the cautionary tale of WeWork has become a bit of a cultural obsession, retold on podcasts, a Hulu documentary, and even an Apple TV series this year.

This week on How I Built This Lab, Miguel McKelvey returns to reflect on his experience at WeWork, the lessons he’s learned, and what he’s working on now.

Listen to Miguel’s original How I Built This episode: https://wondery.com/shows/how-i-built-this/episode/10386-wework-miguel-mckelvey/

Listen to the WeCrashed podcast from Wondery: https://wondery.com/shows/we-crashed/

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Prime members, you can listen to how I built this early and ad-free on Amazon Music.
0:07.0	Download the app today.
0:09.0	When you leave home, can you ever really go back?
0:12.0	Made a version!
0:13.0	Soccer legend Leo Messi and I both left Argentina as kids.
0:17.0	You know you're that piece of a puzzle that doesn't fit anywhere.
0:20.0	To so many immigrants, football is a way to reconnect.
0:23.0	Listen to the last cop in the embedded podcast feed
0:26.0	to hear the latest collaboration from MPR and Fududo Studios.
0:30.0	Hello and welcome to How I Built This Lab.
0:33.0	I'm Guy Razz.
0:34.0	This is the place where we break format and experiment with ideas and stories
0:39.0	that you might not hear on our Monday episode.
0:42.0	It's also a chance to find out what happened to some of the founders
0:45.0	that I've interviewed on the show in the past.
0:48.0	And if all the founders we've had on the show,
0:50.0	the one our listeners have most asked to hear from again is today's guest.
0:55.0	Miguel McElvy, co-founder of WeWork.
0:59.0	Back in February of 2017, when I featured Miguel on the show,
1:03.0	WeWork looked like an undeniable success story.
1:06.0	And if you haven't heard that episode of How I Built This,
1:09.0	please do go and listen.
	...

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