WeWork: Miguel McKelvey

How I Built This · 19 Jun 2017 · 47m

What this episode covers

Miguel McKelvey, co-founder of WeWork, recounts the company's origins with Adam Neumann, starting from their time at the architecture firm Jordan Parnas Digital Architecture working on American Apparel retail rollouts. He details the pivot from their first venture, Green Desk, which was sold to a landlord, to the creation of WeWork, including the manual labor of gut-renovating their first SoHo space. McKelvey explains how they secured early funding from an Orthodox Jewish investor who valued their vision, and discusses the cultural shift toward integrated work-life environments that drove WeWork's rapid scaling to a $16 billion valuation.

Mentioned

Companies
WeWork, Green Desk, American Apparel, Jordan Parnas Digital Architecture, U.S. Bank
Also
Craigslist

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