Jun 19, 2017 · 47m · how-i-built-this
WeWork: Miguel McKelvey
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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 NPR's "How I Built This," host Guy Raz interviews WeWork co-founder Miguel McKelvey about his path from an Oregon counterculture commune to co-founding a multi-billion-dollar shared office empire alongside Adam Neumann.
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 23.8% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Guy as informed peer 1.8 Guest teaching 1.5 Guest disagreement 0.4 Guy pushing back 0.6
speaking balance: gold is Guy, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 44:03 Rebuffing the 'implausible' narrative
McKelvey flatly disagrees with Raz's framing that his transition from commune child to real estate billionaire is implausible, insisting it was the logical result of non-stop hard work since 1995.
Hardest push from Guy ▶ 38:40 Challenging valuation longevity with Compaq analogyRaz pushes back on the permanence of WeWork's multi-billion-dollar valuation by invoking historic cautionary tales like Compaq.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 36:49 Correcting the host on investor cash disbursementWhen Raz assumes the first investor handed over a huge pile of cash on the spot, McKelvey steps in to correct him and explain how committed capital actually works.
Guy holds their own ▶ 41:38 Synthesizing WeWork's model with historical service boomsRaz demonstrates strong historical business insight by framing WeWork not merely as a real estate firm but as a pick-and-shovel infrastructure play analogous to Levi's during the Gold Rush.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Guy as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Guy pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Childhood in an Oregon Women's Collective | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Guy Raz gently probes Miguel McKelvey's unusual upbringing in an all-women collective in Eugene, Oregon. McKelvey candidly describes his childhood dynamics, family structure, and early dreams of moving to New York. | |
| College, Architecture, and Relocating to New York | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Raz narrates McKelvey's college basketball career and architecture degree before McKelvey details how using a friend's Queens address landed him an architectural drafting job in Dumbo. | |
| Managing the Rapid American Apparel Retail Rollout | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | McKelvey describes managing dozens of rapid retail rollouts for American Apparel under the intense management of Dov Charney. Raz facilitates by reacting to the breakneck pace and extreme pressure. | |
| First Encounter with Adam Neumann in Dumbo | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | McKelvey recounts his first encounter with Adam Neumann in an elevator and their nascent friendship. Raz asks clarifying questions about their distinct personalities and early dynamic. | |
| Pitching the Landlord and Creating Green Desk | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | McKelvey explains how he conceived Green Desk overnight to pitch a skeptical Brooklyn landlord. Raz playfully calls out the duo's early hustle as 'BSing' with no money, which McKelvey readily concedes. | |
| Mid-Show Break and Host Commentary | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | McKelvey describes the rapid traction of Green Desk, mapping floorplans with masking tape, and eventually selling their stake back to the landlords to pursue a bigger vision. Raz asks concise operational questions. | |
| Naming WeWork and Building Soho Flagship | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | McKelvey recounts naming WeWork and taking on heavy manual labor like DIY IT cabling and soda blasting brick in their first Soho building. Raz expresses incredulity at them personally doing the wiring. | |
| Landing First Investment and Scaling Rapidly | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | McKelvey explains pitching an early investor at an audacious $45M valuation before signing a lease. When Raz assumes the investor handed over all the cash immediately, McKelvey clarifies that it was committed incrementally. | |
| Workplace Revolution and a 100-Year Vision | 5 | 3 | 2 | 3 | Raz challenges McKelvey on whether WeWork's multibillion-dollar valuation could collapse like past corporate giants (e.g., Compaq), offering an analogy to Levi's during the gold rush. When Raz calls McKelvey's trajectory from commune to real estate giant 'implausible,' McKelvey firmly rejects the label. | |
| Episode Outro and Commune Success Stories | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Episode outro monologue by Guy Raz highlighting other members of McKelvey's childhood collective, followed by show credits and a promotional plug for another NPR show. |
Statements from this episode (11)
McKelvey: Grew up in Oregon collective of five mothers 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 grew to 200 stores in roughly four years
“Yeah, I think they were to 200 after four years or so.”
Adam Neumann's previous startup made baby pants with built-in knee pads
“So he had a couple of startups 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, so to protect their knees. They were called crawlers.”
McKelvey: Created GreenDesk's branding, website, and collateral in one night
“So basically 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 s…”
McKelvey: Green Desk was immediately profitable but capital-intensive
“It was a good business, definitely, right off the bat, and we were profitable, but the problem is, is that it's capital intensive.”
McKelvey and Neumann each made up to $1M selling Green Desk
“I mean, we must have gotten, like, somewhere between half a million and a million dollars each.”
McKelvey: Green Desk non-compete restricted WeWork's initial expansion locations
“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: In 2010, no workspaces used incandescent, hospitality-style lighting
“I mean, back then we did all incandescent lighting. To do that in a workspace at the time, it just didn't exist. You had like a cool Brooklyn restaurant in an old auto garage. You had, you know, other people say doing boutique hotels with that vibe, but in wor…”
McKelvey: WeWork opened Soho flagship at 70-80% occupancy
“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.”
WeWork secured a $45M valuation 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.”
McKelvey claimed WeWork was a 100-year company, not built to sell
“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 …”