Founded in 2010 in SoHo, Manhattan, WeWork is a company specializing in coworking spaces, both physical and virtual. While the company rapidly expanded its memberships and office locations prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, it scaled back slightly in 2020 due to the increasing trend of remote work.

As of June 2023, WeWork's available cash stood at $205 million. To address mounting financial challenges, WeWork unveiled plans in January 2023 to trim its workforce by 300 employees across multiple countries.

It's important to note that WeWork has never achieved profitability. In 2021, it went public at a significantly reduced valuation and is currently filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy due to its substantial debt and escalating losses.

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The WeWork Mafia

Despite all the drama, we wanted to take a look at the alumni group of WeWork, who've gone on to start some pretty impressive companies.

Below we list the top 34 companies, but a total of 119 companies have been founded by former employees and $2.4 billion raised.

PS: Are you a WeWork employee/alum interested in getting your community together to invest in the community (and earn carry/other benefits along the way)? Or are you a member of another community that you think would make for an amazing startup investment community? 😉

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Most money raised: Acquco 

Acquco, based in New York City, is a company dedicated to acquiring third-party sellers operating on Amazon's FBA platform. The team leading the company comprises experienced operators, including former Amazon employees.

The company's co-founders are Raunak Nirmal and Wiley Zhang, with Nirmal serving as the CEO of Acquco. In 2021, Acquco achieved $420 million in revenue, and this year, they are on track to double that impressive figure. Notably, in May of the previous year, the company secured $160 million in debt and equity during a Series A funding round.
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‍Company to keep an eye on: Artifact 

Artifact specializes in crafting personal podcasts to preserve your cherished memories. Their skilled interviewers are adept at capturing your family's stories and commemorating the special individuals in your life.

For just $149, anyone can arrange a 30-minute interview with a professional interviewer. The result is transformed into an approximately 20-minute episode complete with captivating intro and outro music.

These precious artifacts are hosted on a user-friendly website, where you can effortlessly upload an unlimited number of photos and extend invitations to friends and family to listen and relish the memories.

The company was founded by Ross Chanin and Martin G.

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A list of all the amazing companies covered:

• Conductor
• Acquco
• R2
• Pace
• Empathy
• Pilot
• Accrue Savings
• Dongnae
• Smalls
• Ori
• Thunder
• WeAre8
• Metafore
• Narrator
• Teal
• Crews by Core
• Climate Club
• Allwhere
• Qortex
• Say
• Golioth
• Preql
• Wilco
• Flexspace Technologies Inc
• Carrot
• Artifact
• Revenue Roll
• Huddle
• Most Days
• Substrata
• 5x
• Insomnia Labs
• BOND
• Runway

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‍Acquco

Founder: Raunak Nirmal, Jerel Ho
WeWork Role: Business Technology Summer Analyst, Director - Corporate Development & Strategy
Capital Raised: $245M
Investors: CoVenture
Stage: Series B

Acquco is an e-commerce platform that focuses on acquiring and growing Amazon Marketplace businesses. Founded by seasoned Amazon operators in 2020, they have raised 160M+ of institutional capital to acquire and grow their portfolio of brands in Amazon’s ecosystem.

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Conductor

Founder: Seth Besmertnik
WeWork Role: Leadership Team
Capital Raised: $210.6M
Investors: FirstMark Capital
Stage: Series A

Conductor is a content intelligence platform that enables marketers to create great content, drive qualified traffic, and increase ROI.

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R2

Founder: Roger Teran
WeWork Role: Data Scientist
Capital Raised: $120.9M
Investors: General Catalyst
Stage: Series A

R2 is an embedded lending platform that offers capital for businesses.

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Pace

Founder: Turochas Fuad
WeWork Role: Managing Director
Capital Raised: $46M
Investors: Vertex Ventures
Stage: Series A

Pace is an online payment platform that allows users to pay for their purchases in three interest-free installments. Turochas is the founder of Pace who has previously launched 4 companies.

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Empathy

Founder: Ron Gura, Yonatan Bergman
WeWork Role: SVP Product
Capital Raised: $43M
Investors: General Catalyst
Stage: Series A

The Empathy app helps families through all the financial, legal, emotional and logistical challenges after losing a loved one.

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Pilot

Founder: Joseph Fasone
WeWork Role: Director, Information Technology
Capital Raised: $33.1M
Investors: Union Square Ventures
Stage: Series B

Pilot is a fiber-optic ISP that raises the bar for telecom and provides better business internet.

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Accrue Savings

Founder: Michael Hershfield
WeWork Role: SVP, Sales
Capital Raised: $29.7M
Investors: BoxGroup
Stage: Series A

Accrue Savings rewards people who save and helps retailers attract new customers. Michael is the founder and CEO of Accrue Savings and he sits on the board of Israel Policy Forum and C100.

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Dongnae

Founder: Insong Kim, Matthew Shampine
WeWork Role: Chief Of Staff, General Manager
Capital Raised: $28.7M
Investors: NFX
Stage: Series A

A proptech company creating a better way of modern renting in Korea. Their digital products and deep operational experience make the rental process smarter and easier.

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Smalls

Founder: Matthew Michaelson
WeWork Role: Labs Associate
Capital Raised: $28M
Investors: Founder Collective
Stage: Series B

Smalls offers high-quality, human-grade cat food made with fresh ingredients.

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Ori

Founder: Edwin Hendriksen
WeWork Role: Vice President, Head of WeLive and Mixed-Use Real Estate
Capital Raised: $27.1M
Investors: Khosla
Stage: Series B

Ori is a smart space company that designs multi-functional, robotic-powered interior solutions.

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Thunder

Founder: Carter Wigell
WeWork Role: SVP
Capital Raised: $18M
Investors: Salesforce Ventures
Stage: Series A

Thunder is a management consulting company that unlocks business value with intelligent frameworks and solutions. It was founded in 2020 and is now a growing Salesforce consulting partner delivering best in-class implementation and change management services.

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WeAre8

Founder: Sonja Nuttall
WeWork Role: Design Consultant
Capital Raised: $17.2M
Investors: Channel 4 Ventures
Stage: Series B

WeAre8 is a content sharing platform that assists brands to engage and manage influencers and customer relationships at scale.

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Metafore

Founder: Romain Magri
WeWork Role: Director - La Fayette & France
Capital Raised: $15.85M
Investors: Founders Future
Stage: Series A

Metafore offers spaces to professionals for seminars and corporate events.

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Narrator

Founder: Cedric Dussud, Matthew Star, Michael Nason, Ahmed Elsamadisi
WeWork Role: Engineering Director, Engineering Lead, Senior Software Engineer, Head of Data
Capital Raised: $13.6M
Investors: Y Combinator
Stage: Series A

Narrator helps answer data requests in minutes.

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Teal

Founder: David Fano
WeWork Role: Chief Growth Officer
Capital Raised: $11.3M
Investors: City Light Capital
Stage: Seed

Teal is a personal career growth platform that gives you the tools needed accelerate your career.

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Crews by Core

Founder: Gene Gutnik, Di-Ann Eisnor
WeWork Role: VP of Engineering, CWeO Cities
Capital Raised: $11M
Investors: Streamlined Ventures
Stage: Seed

Crews by Core works with construction to build powerful technology for strong teams to support the construction workforce for the future.

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Climate Club

Founder: Adam Braun
WeWork Role: COO, WeGrow
Capital Raised: $9.6M
Investors: Red Sea Ventures
Stage: Seed

Climate Club enables business, finance, sustainability and travel leaders with real-time data, analytics and planning tools to hit business goals while managing carbon with clarity.

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Allwhere

Founder: Oscar Mattsson
WeWork Role: Corporate Development
Capital Raised: $9.5M
Investors: DESCOvery
Stage: Seed

Allwhere is on a mission to revolutionize the future of work and reimagine how distributed teams come together. Their product allows workplaces to move into the future of work, so their teams can reach their full potential.

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Qortex

Founder: James Altschuler
WeWork Role: Global Enterprise Account Executive
Capital Raised: $8.5M
Investors: Quake Capital Partners
Stage: Seed

Qortex is the pioneer of on-stream, scalable in-video experiences for the web and CTV, powered by AI. James is the co-founder of Qortex and is a startup and technology enthusiast.

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Say

Founder: Noah Kerner
WeWork Role: Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer
Capital Raised: $8M
Investors: Torch Capital
Stage: Seed

Say is a technology platform that empowers shareholders to access their full ownership rights.

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Golioth

Founder: Jonathan Beri
WeWork Role: Product
Capital Raised: $7.1M
Investors: Zetta Venture Partners
Stage: Seed

Golioth is an IoT platform that makes it easy to connect hardware to the cloud.

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Preql

Founder: Gabi Steele, Leah Weiss
WeWork Role: Head of Data Visualization Engineering, Director, Data Products
Capital Raised: $7M
Investors: Bessemer Venture Partners
Stage: Seed

Preql integrates with the modern data stack to empower business users and manage business metrics.

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Wilco

Founder: Alon Carmel, On Freund, Shem Magnezi
WeWork Role: Product Management Mentor at WeWork Labs Global Head of Markets, Staff Software Engineer
Capital Raised: $7M
Investors: Vertex Ventures
Stage: Seed

Wilco's mission is to empower every developer, regardless of their background or skill level, to unlock their full potential/

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Flexspace Technologies Inc

Founder: Eyal Lasker
WeWork Role: Head of Growth
Capital Raised: $6M
Investors: M13
Stage: Seed

Flexspace is a corporate solution to discover, book, and manage on-demand workspaces with no commitment or upfront cost.

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Carrot

Founder: Bobby Ghoshal, Ramin Bozorgzadeh
WeWork Role: Head of Growth & Design, Head of Engineering
Capital Raised: $5.5M
Investors: Paris Hilton
Stage: Seed

Carrot is a plug-in that saves the stuff you’ve put in your cart and automatically categorizes it.

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Artifact

Founder: Ross Chanin, Martin G.
WeWork Role: Product, Senior Data Scientist
Capital Raised: $5.1M
Investors: Y Combinator
Stage: Seed

Artifact helps families capture, organise and share their most important stories. Ross is the co-founder and CEO who has also previously worked as an advisor at Paystack.

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Revenue Roll

Founder: Alek Burk
WeWork Role: Team Lead - New Member Development, West Coast
Capital Raised: $4M
Investors: Innovating Capital
Stage: Seed

Revenue Roll is an identity resolution, attribution, and financing platform that enables online advertisers to maximize marketing ROI.

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Huddle

Founder: Michael Saloio
WeWork Role: Entrepreneur In Residence
Capital Raised: $3.3M
Investors: Outlander VC
Stage: Seed

Huddle connects startups with skilled creators to design and build anything from pitch decks to branding to mobile apps. It is a network of top designers and builders that startups can plug into.

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Most Days

Founder: Brent Franson
WeWork Role: CEO, Euclid
Capital Raised: $3.2M
Investors: Village Global
Stage: Seed

Most Days is a subscription-based life improvement platform for mental, physical, and emotional wellness.

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Substrata

Founder: Ori Manor Zuckerman
WeWork Role: Head of Special Growth Projects | SalesTech Expert
Capital Raised: $3.2M
Investors: Aves Lair
Stage: Seed

Substrata is a realtime behavioural intelligence for Dealmakers to help them sell faster and smarter.

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5x

Founder: Tarush Aggarwal
WeWork Role: Head of Platform, China Technology
Capital Raised: $3M
Investors: Flybridge
Stage: Seed

5x is the first end-to-end data platform built on top of the current data stack's best-in-class suppliers.

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Insomnia Labs

Founder: Billy Huang
WeWork Role: Software Engineer
Capital Raised: $2.2M 
Investors: Polygon
Stage: Seed

Insomnia Labs specializes in partnering with visionary companies that crave innovation. Their mission is to unravel the most complex challenges using emerging technologies and cutting edge ops strategies.

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BOND

Founder: Sam Robinson
WeWork Role: Director of Business Operations; Chief of Staff to Global CPO
Capital Raised: $2M
Investors: Nordstar
Stage: Pre-Seed

BOND is the first inspiration-driven live shopping platform that connects creators, brands, and consumers.

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Runway

Founder: Matt Varghese
WeWork Role: Senior Designer
Capital Raised: $2M
Investors: Y Combinator
Stage: Seed

Runway is a mobile release management platform that helps teams better coordinate and automate app releases.

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