When I step off the elevator at We Work's headquarters in New York City one Thurs- day morning in October 2018, a dozen or so children have taken over the reception area. They're students from WeGrow, an elementary school the company launched a year earlier, and they're hosting their weekly pop-up vegetable stand. "Would you like to buy something?" asks a girl of around 6 or 7, holding an iPad listing products and prices. I'm here to learn how Vision Fund's money is being spent and would rather not walk into my meetings holding a head of lettuce, so, feeling like the Grinch, I tell her I'll pick something up on the way out. She shrugs; there are plenty of other customers.
Sunlight pours in through tall windows overlooking West 18th Street. The open floor plan lets me see from the reception area across rows of tables populated by We Work members tapping away on laptops. At the far end of the space, there's a wall of glass, behind which Adam Neumann, We Work's CEO, is taking a meeting. He looks like a rock star, with long, dark curls brushing his shoulders, black jeans, and a wide-brimmed black fedora, and as far as the Vision Fund is concerned, he is. "There is a sense of massive opportunity," says Fisher, who sits on We Work's board. Son has even called We Work his next Alibaba. In 2000, he put $20 million in the untested Chinese commerce startup. Today, Alibaba's market cap is nearly $400 billion.
Transportation is moving from something individuals own to a service they rent on demand via technology.