New Social Network Is a Lot Like LinkedIn, Only Actually Useful

Monday, November 17, 2014

New Social Network Is a Lot Like LinkedIn, Only Actually Useful

BY ISSIE LAPOWSKY
11.17.14 |
8:50 AM |
PERMALINK

One of WeWork’s lounge spaces

WeWork

WeWork is red hot. Offering co-working spaces where startups and freelancers can feel like they’re part of something larger, it’s valued at $1.5 billion, and it’s on track to triple membership within the next 12 months.

But it wants more. On Monday, the four-year-old company expanded its large and growing footprint even further with a new social network. It’s called WeWork Commons, and it could rival LinkedIn—except it might actually be useful.

The goal is to bring the experience of working in WeWork’s physical offices to anyone, anywhere. It’s an online service where members—many of them entrepreneurs and tech workers—can trade stories and advice with other members, find local events, rent workspace, and get access to discounted business services. This is the kind of stuff WeWork’s more than 15,000 tenants have had access to all along. Now, the company is opening it up to thousands, if not millions more.

According to Kakul Srivastava, WeWork’s chief product officer, the network isn’t just about launching a new line of business for WeWork. It’s about accommodating what she calls a “fundamental shift” in the way work is being done. “It’s the rise of the independent worker,” Srivastava says. “What we’re launching is about that. It’s about giving voice to that and building tools to allow that to happen.”

There are now 17.9 million so-called “solopreneurs” in the United States, according to the business services firm MBO Partners. That’s a 12.5 percent rise from 2011. It’s a trend that’s been alternately described as “the project economy,” “the flex economy,” and “the freelance economy,” and it’s precisely what has enabled WeWork to flourish.

The company’s communal office spaces have taken off with the tech set, because they give these tiny startups the feeling of being part of something bigger than they are. “Having a space like this gives your business a sense of legitimacy,” says Brian Blau, a consumer technology analyst at research outfit Gartner.

And yet, even as WeWork has expanded its physical presence at a breakneck pace, its waiting list continues to grow. “We literally cannot build our physical space fast enough,” says Srivastava. “We got the feeling that there is much larger demand than we could possibly serve doing business as usual.”

Members can share news, advice, and announcements on the WeWork Commons news feed.

WeWork

Now, on WeWork Commons, members can log on to the web or mobile app, get connected to other people in their industry and see a news feed populated with conversations between other members. That’s where they’ll see people asking for advice, feedback on a demo, accounting help, referrals, and more. The membership also comes with two credits per month that members can use toward booking conference rooms or office space in one of WeWork’s physical locations. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, members get access to things like low-cost health insurance from Trinet and discounted web hosting from Rackspace.

“Because of our scale, we’re able to negotiate and bring together a bunch of services that are particularly important to our members,” Srivastava says.

To be clear, WeWork has no delusions that this new social network will become the next LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a huge and thriving business that’s unrivaled as a recruiting tool. And yet, Srivastava says, its sheer size and scope makes LinkedIn a tough place to actually get stuff done. By that measure, then WeWork Commons will almost be the anti-LinkedIn, a small community of people who are still in the earliest stages of building something new and want to help each other through it.

Membership costs a hefty $45 a month, which Blau says may deter people from using the site, which can become a problem for social networks that tend to benefit from scale. He also adds that as these members become more established, they may outgrow WeWork Commons, which could cause a problem with churn for the company.

But Srivastava says that keeping the network focused and contained is half the point. “Our goal is not to build the biggest social network in the world,” she says. “Our network is for and about a particular kind of person. It’s not for everyone.”