Sep 3, 2018 · 51m · how-i-built-this
WeWork: Miguel McKelvey (2018)
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In this episode of How I Built This, host Guy Raz interviews WeWork co-founder Miguel McKelvey about how his communal upbringing, architectural background, and partnership with Adam Neumann fueled the creation and massive scaling of WeWork.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Guy holds 28.5% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Guy as informed peer 2.3 Guest teaching 1.3 Guest disagreement 0.3 Guy pushing back 0.7
speaking balance: gold is Guy, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 45:25 Miguel rejects the premise that his success is implausible
When Guy suggests it seems completely implausible for a boy from an Oregon commune to become a real estate mogul, Miguel firmly rejects the romantic framing by pointing out his unrelenting daily work since 1995.
Hardest push from Guy ▶ 40:05 Guy challenges WeWork's vulnerability to collapseGuy cites rapid-rise cautionary tales like Compaq to push Miguel on whether WeWork's multi-billion dollar empire could suddenly implode.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 40:35 Miguel explains why headline valuations are irrelevantMiguel reframes Guy's focus on massive valuations by explaining that market figures are irrelevant to solving evolving daily customer problems.
Guy holds their own ▶ 43:20 Guy contextualizes WeWork with the Levi's Gold Rush analogyGuy demonstrates strong historical and business insight by framing WeWork not as a tech firm, but as the infrastructure service provider profiting off the broader tech boom.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Guy as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Guy pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Announcement: Joanna Bloor Webinar and Summit Ticket Giveaway | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Introductory promo and episode teaser. Guy Raz delivers a promotional monologue for an upcoming webinar and introduces the premise of the episode with short archival soundbites. | |
| Miguel McKelvey's Childhood in an Oregon Commune | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Guy conducts an exploratory, supportive biographical inquiry into Miguel's upbringing in an Oregon matriarchal collective. The dialogue is entirely warm, collaborative, and reflective. | |
| Arriving in New York and Designing for American Apparel | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Miguel recounts moving to NYC with a fake Queens address and working for Jordan Parnass on American Apparel rollouts. Miguel gently corrects Guy's assumption that he was a certified architect, explaining he was merely an entry-level draftsman. | |
| Meeting Adam Neumann and Pitching the Shared Office Concept | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Miguel describes meeting Adam Neumann in an elevator and their contrasting personalities. Guy prompts with curious questions about their dynamic and early attempts to pitch landlords. | |
| Developing Green Desk Overnight and Securing the Space | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | Miguel explains how they bluffed their way into a lease by staying up all night building marketing materials and a website. Guy playfully calls out that they were 'BSing' without any real capital. | |
| Launching Green Desk and Parting Ways with Landlords | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Miguel discusses launching Green Desk, filling spaces via Craigslist, and parting ways with the building owners. He differentiates their private-office approach from existing tech-centric open coworking spaces. | |
| Conceptualizing WeWork and Building the Soho Flagship | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | Miguel details the gritty DIY renovation of the first WeWork space in Soho, including wiring cabling and soda blasting brick. When Guy assumes an investor handed over cash directly, Miguel clarifies it was an initial staged commitment. | |
| Scaling WeWork, Billion-Dollar Valuations, and the Changing Workplace | 6 | 3 | 2 | 3 | Guy presses Miguel on whether WeWork could collapse like historic boom-and-bust giants and notes how implausible Miguel's journey seems. Guy also provides a sharp Levi's Gold Rush analogy, while Miguel reframes valuation as irrelevant to the core business mission. | |
| How You Built That: Crystal Gordon Invents the DuVaid | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | A mini-segment featuring inventor Crystal Gordon detailing the invention and prototyping of the DuVaid duvet-loading clamp. Guy serves purely as a narrator with zero confrontation. |
Statements from this episode (9)
Miguel McKelvey: I was raised in an all-women collective without fathers
“There were five women who were all really good friends, you know, best friends for a long time. They had all pretty much decided to have children without the fathers in the picture just because it was a time when they wanted to break free from normal sort of a…”
McKelvey: American Apparel scaled to 200 retail stores in about four years
“Yeah, I think they were to 200 after four years or so.”
McKelvey: Adam Neumann previously ran Crawlers, a baby clothing startup
“One of them, both of them, I think were baby clothing companies. And he had sort of an idea for innovating in baby clothing by putting knee pads in baby's pants to protect their knees. They were called crawlers.”
McKelvey: Green Desk branding, website, and business model created overnight
“I go home and I start thinking of a concept of a name, come up with green desk, which is office space oriented towards people who are environmentally responsible. I buy the domain, you know, I build a website. I designed some floor plans, really simple do like…”
McKelvey: Founders received $500K to $1M each selling Green Desk
“I wish I remembered the details, but I mean, we must have gotten like somewhere between half a million and a million dollars each.”
McKelvey: Green Desk Non-Compete Restricted Early WeWork Search to Manhattan and SF
“We did have a non-compete with our green desk partners. So we had a limited number of areas we could go. So we were looking in San Francisco and also in Manhattan.”
McKelvey: WeWork's Soho Location Reached 70-80% Occupancy at Opening
“I think when we first opened the first floor, we were probably in the 70 to 80% range. And then within the first couple months, the first two floors were pretty much full.”
McKelvey: WeWork Secured a $45M Valuation Commitment Before Signing Its First Lease
“And we had no building, we had no signed lease even, and we proposed a forty-five million dollar valuation. And that's pretty high for a business that is unproven, and so he said yes. You know, he said, okay, I want to be a third partner, and so I'll commit to…”
McKelvey: WeWork is a hundred-year challenge, not built to be sold
“And Adam and I, like, we, when we talked about this, we're like, this is a hundred year challenge. It's not like, hey, we're building a company so we can sell it and move on. We're doing this because we think this is the most interesting and biggest challenge …”