Miguel McKelvey | $1B+
Get in touch with Miguel McKelvey | Miguel McKelvey, cofounder and former chief culture officer of WeWork, is the design-driven entrepreneur who helped redefine how a generation thinks about workspaces. Partnering with Adam Neumann, McKelvey translated architectural training and brand intuition into a global coworking phenomenon, shaping WeWork’s distinctive aesthetic, community ethos, and rapid international expansion. After stepping back from day-to-day operations, he has focused on new ventures at the intersection of design, culture, and entrepreneurship, continuing to influence how physical spaces support creativity, collaboration, and modern work.
Miguel McKelvey (born July 4, 1974) is an American businessman and architect recognized as the co-founder of WeWork, a global provider of shared workspaces launched in 2010 alongside Adam Neumann.[1][2]
Raised in a five-mother commune in Eugene, Oregon, McKelvey graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Oregon in 1999, skills he applied as WeWork's chief culture officer until his departure in July 2020 to shape the aesthetic and communal elements of its environments, initially featuring amenities like on-site beer kegs to foster collaboration.[2][3][2]
The firm scaled to approximately 777 locations in 39 countries at its height, attaining a $47 billion valuation in 2019 through aggressive leasing and subletting of office space, but an abortive IPO that year unveiled hundreds of millions in annual losses, questionable governance, and overexpansion, precipitating Neumann's exit, McKelvey's later resignation, and eventual Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2023.[4][5][5]
Post-WeWork, McKelvey has channeled resources into diverse enterprises, including apparel partnerships and design initiatives, while reflecting publicly on lingering accountability for the company's trajectory.[2][6]
Early Life and Education
Upbringing and Influences
Miguel McKelvey was born in 1974 in Eugene, Oregon, where he grew up in an unconventional communal arrangement involving five single mothers raising six children collectively.[7][8] This "five-mother collective" emphasized shared responsibilities and mutual support, fostering an environment of collaboration amid limited traditional structure.[9][10]
His mother, Lucia McKelvey, co-founded the Eugene Weekly, a local alternative newspaper that embodied the area's progressive and independent media scene, exposing him to entrepreneurial initiative in creative industries from an early age.[11][8] The household's emphasis on female-led dynamics and communal problem-solving instilled a foundational value for interpersonal connections and adaptive living, distinct from conventional nuclear family models and highlighting McKelvey's emergence from a self-reliant, non-privileged background.[12]
McKelvey's childhood interests gravitated toward creative fields, particularly architecture and design, influenced by the innovative and alternative ethos of his Eugene surroundings.[13] These early inclinations toward spatial and aesthetic problem-solving were nurtured in a setting that prioritized collective experiences over individual isolation, laying causal groundwork for his later pursuits in environments that blend functionality with social interaction.[14] Public details on specific youthful projects remain sparse, but the commune's dynamics provided implicit lessons in resource pooling and group ingenuity, shaping a worldview attuned to the potentials of shared urban-inspired spaces.
Academic Background
McKelvey earned a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Oregon in 1999.[3][10] He had transferred to the University of Oregon after initially attending another institution.[15] The architecture program at the University of Oregon emphasized design principles, spatial planning, and construction fundamentals, providing McKelvey with foundational expertise in creating functional and aesthetically integrated environments.[16]
During his studies, McKelvey engaged in coursework that honed skills in architectural drafting, material selection, and conceptual modeling, which later informed his approach to workspace configuration.[17] He also participated in the university's men's basketball team for two years, balancing athletic commitments with academic pursuits in design.[10] This formal training distinguished McKelvey's technical proficiency in real estate and interior spatial dynamics from broader entrepreneurial influences, equipping him with verifiable credentials in a field directly applicable to adaptive reuse of commercial properties.[3]
Pre-WeWork Ventures
Early Business Attempts
In the mid-2000s, McKelvey launched Generation Design Studio, a partnership specializing in space design services, project management, property development, and custom furniture fabrication.[18] The firm emphasized cross-media design solutions tailored to urban environments, reflecting McKelvey's architecture training and observations of inefficient space use in cities like Portland, Oregon, where small-scale adaptive projects could address underutilized properties.[19]
A representative project was the 2000s construction of a compact 9-by-22-foot (198-square-foot) tiny house in Portland's hills, which McKelvey designed and built to test principles of minimalism and multifunctional space allocation.[20] This hands-on effort highlighted practical challenges in optimizing limited areas for habitation or work, fostering iterative approaches to layout efficiency based on material constraints and user needs rather than preconceived ideals. Such modest ventures built foundational experience in real estate adaptation, underscoring the causal links between physical design and functional utility in dense urban settings.
Concurrently, McKelvey co-founded Seven Planet around 2007, a Portland-based transportation initiative that operated until approximately 2009 before exiting.[21] Though focused on mobility solutions, it represented an early trial in scalable operations amid economic shifts, contributing to his resilience through navigating startup pivots and market feedback in the late 2000s recession. These pre-Greenhouse endeavors emphasized empirical testing over speculative scaling, prioritizing viable prototypes to reveal core inefficiencies in resource allocation.
Founding of Greenhouse
In 2008, Miguel McKelvey co-founded Green Desk with Adam Neumann in Brooklyn, New York, as an eco-friendly co-working space that served as a direct prototype for the shared office model later expanded by WeWork. The venture originated from their shared experience in a Dumbo building, where Neumann negotiated a lease with landlord Joshua Guttman for underutilized space, prompting McKelvey—an architect by training—to rapidly develop the branding, including the name, logo, and website overnight.[10][22] Green Desk emphasized sustainable design features, such as energy-efficient renovations and green materials, targeting small businesses and freelancers seeking flexible, month-to-month office rentals in a community-oriented environment.[3]
Operationally, Green Desk functioned on a small scale, leasing space in a single Brooklyn location and subletting it with amenities like communal areas and basic infrastructure, generating initial revenue through short-term memberships rather than long-term commitments. This approach yielded modest achievements, including occupancy in an otherwise vacant property and early traction among eco-conscious tenants, but lacked empirical evidence of broad market scalability beyond niche sustainability appeals. Innovations in space design, drawing from McKelvey's architectural background, included open layouts to foster collaboration, though revenue streams remained constrained by limited geographic footprint and dependence on local demand without diversified data on expansion viability.[10][3][23]
By 2010, McKelvey and Neumann pivoted from Green Desk to launch WeWork, effectively supplanting the smaller operation amid recognition that its eco-niche model faced inherent limitations in achieving widespread adoption without proven metrics for larger-scale leasing and tenant retention. The shift highlighted over-optimism in assuming sustainable co-working could rapidly scale without rigorous data on cost efficiencies or market saturation in non-specialized segments, as Green Desk's single-site focus underscored challenges in replicating success amid rising commercial real estate competition. Green Desk continued independently post-pivot, but its foundational constraints informed the broader ambitions—and eventual pitfalls—of subsequent ventures.[10][24]
Founding and Rise of WeWork
Partnership with Adam Neumann
Miguel McKelvey, a trained architect, and Adam Neumann, an entrepreneur with prior ventures in apparel, met in New York through mutual connections in the mid-2000s, initially collaborating when Neumann sought office design help for his businesses.[25][26] Their partnership solidified around 2007 when McKelvey convinced Neumann to share office space in a Brooklyn building, fostering discussions on real estate inefficiencies.[27] McKelvey's expertise in creative design and spatial planning paired effectively with Neumann's strengths in vision-setting, deal-making, and fundraising, creating a balanced duo for addressing unmet needs in professional environments.[10][25]
The duo's early motivations stemmed from observing rigid, uninspiring traditional office leases that locked tenants into long-term commitments without community elements, prompting a focus on short-term, flexible rentals designed to build networks among freelancers, startups, and growing firms.[10] They first tested this concept through Green Desk, a sustainable coworking initiative launched in May 2008 in a vacant Brooklyn warehouse, which honed their subleasing model and community-building approach before selling their stake in 2010.[26][25]
To bootstrap their venture, McKelvey and Neumann pooled approximately $300,000 in personal funds despite low credit scores, relying on persuasive negotiations to secure initial landlord agreements without external investors.[26] This self-funded start emphasized operational efficiency and rapid iteration based on Green Desk lessons, prioritizing scalable flexibility over conventional real estate norms.[25]
Initial Launch and Vision (2010)
WeWork was officially founded in May 2010 by Adam Neumann and Miguel McKelvey in New York City, opening its inaugural location at 154 Grand Street in the SoHo district with approximately 3,000 square feet of space.[28] The initial setup featured open-plan workspaces designed to promote collaboration, including hot desks, private offices, and communal areas equipped with amenities such as beer on tap and coffee stations to encourage informal interactions.[29] This aesthetic emphasized industrial-chic interiors with exposed brick and high ceilings, drawing from McKelvey's background in creative design to differentiate from traditional offices.[25]
The core business model involved securing long-term leases on underutilized commercial buildings and subletting space on flexible, short-term memberships to individuals and small teams, targeting freelancers, startups, and early-stage companies seeking affordable alternatives to conventional leases.[25][30] This approach aimed to achieve high space utilization rates by filling desks on a month-to-month basis, often at premiums over raw rental costs due to added services like high-speed internet, cleaning, and utilities included in membership fees starting around $299 per month for basic access.[28] The strategy leveraged economies of scale from bulk leasing while minimizing vacancy risks through community-focused marketing that positioned WeWork as more than real estate—a platform for professional networking and serendipitous connections.[31]
Early reception among freelancers and startups was positive, with the SoHo space attracting members who valued the vibrant, community-oriented environment over isolated home offices or costly solo rentals, validating the model's appeal in a growing gig economy.[32] Initial uptake demonstrated the viability of the shared-space concept, as demand prompted rapid iterations on amenities and layouts, setting the stage for subsequent locations in New York by year's end without relying on traditional office brokers.[33] This empirical success stemmed from addressing real pain points like isolation and high fixed costs for independent workers, though long-term scalability remained unproven at launch.[34]
Role and Contributions at WeWork
Chief Culture and Creative Officer Responsibilities
As Chief Culture Officer and Chief Creative Officer at WeWork, Miguel McKelvey directed the company's architecture, design, construction, and web design efforts, shaping the physical and digital environments to prioritize communal interaction over traditional office isolation.[35][36] His responsibilities included overseeing the aesthetic and functional layout of WeWork spaces, such as open lounges, shared kitchens, and flexible workstations intended to encourage serendipitous encounters among members, drawing on principles of spatial psychology where proximity facilitates human collaboration.[16][37] This approach positioned WeWork not merely as a rental provider but as a habitat engineered for sustained member engagement, with empirical evidence from internal metrics showing over 70% of occupying companies reporting collaborations with others in the same building.[37]
McKelvey's culture mandate extended to embedding WeWork's core values—emphasizing entrepreneurship, gratitude, and community—into daily operations through employee onboarding, hiring oversight, and experiential programming.[11][38] He personally contributed to constructing early locations, like the inaugural New York City space, to prototype these elements hands-on, ensuring designs reflected causal links between environment and behavior, such as vibrant color schemes and modular furniture promoting retention via user satisfaction feedback loops.[39][40] Initiatives under his purview included community events and wellness activities, like group sessions fostering belonging, which tied directly to member retention rates by addressing innate social needs rather than transactional leasing.[41] These efforts branded WeWork as a lifestyle ecosystem, where aesthetic and cultural cohesion reduced churn by aligning spaces with users' collaborative imperatives, as validated by occupancy data from the 2010s expansion phase.[38]
Design and Community-Building Efforts
As WeWork's co-founder and chief creative officer, Miguel McKelvey, a trained architect, directed the design of office spaces emphasizing open layouts, communal lounges, and flexible configurations to promote spontaneous interactions via the propinquity effect, where physical proximity fosters social and professional connections.[42] These included multi-story steel staircases as central activity hubs and adaptable rooms shifting between uses like karaoke lounges, conference spaces, and play areas equipped with ping-pong tables.[42] [43]
Amenities integrated into these environments featured beer taps in shared lounges for casual networking, alongside quiet zones with hammocks, massage chairs, and residential-style furniture iteratively tested for ergonomic comfort, such as optimal chair selections and cushioned seating to support varied work styles and reduce fatigue.[42] [43] Building choices prioritized corner sites for dual natural light exposure and historic properties retaining original woodwork or industrial elements, enhancing a localized sense of place and community.[43]
McKelvey's team conducted internal experiments, using QR codes for real-time feedback on elements like acoustic foam and eclectic decor, aiming to refine productivity through homelike, engaging atmospheres rather than sterile corporate setups.[42] He attributed design-driven outcomes to high collaboration rates, stating that over 70 percent of tenant companies formed partnerships with others in the spaces.[44]
Such bespoke features, however, elevated fit-out expenses; bold installations like expansive staircases incurred premium costs, while New York-area buildouts averaged $161 to $248 per square foot, exceeding basic commercial standards of $50 to $150, as a deliberate trade-off for visual and functional differentiation from traditional offices.[42] [45] [46]
WeWork's Expansion and Peak Valuation
Global Scaling (2010s)
WeWork's international expansion accelerated in the mid-2010s, growing from its initial New York City base to 30 locations across 10 cities by 2014, with McKelvey contributing through oversight of space design and community features that differentiated the offerings.[47] By 2016, the company's New York portfolio alone encompassed 32 locations totaling 2.7 million square feet, reflecting aggressive leasing to support scaling.[48] This growth extended globally, with entries into markets like Europe and Asia, including dedicated subsidiaries for China, Japan, and other regions formed in 2017 to facilitate localized operations.
Funding from SoftBank, starting with a $4.4 billion investment in August 2017, enabled further lease commitments and rapid footprint expansion, adding between 500,000 and 1 million square feet of space monthly by the late 2010s.[49] McKelvey, as Chief Culture and Creative Officer, influenced this phase by prioritizing experiential designs—such as open layouts and event spaces—that aimed to foster member retention amid the push into new geographies.[50]
Membership surged correspondingly, reaching 130,000 by May 2017 and doubling to over 200,000 by early 2018, signaling strong initial demand.[49] However, utilization patterns in 2017-2018 showed variances, with overall occupancy around 81% but pockets of underuse in newly leased spaces outpacing membership growth, hinting at overextension in commitments relative to occupancy.[51] This aggressive approach, while driving scale to dozens of cities, began exposing tensions between rapid leasing and sustainable utilization before the decade's end.[49]
Investor Hype and $47 Billion Valuation (2019)
In January 2019, SoftBank's Vision Fund led a funding round that propelled WeWork's private valuation to $47 billion, surpassing those of established firms like Uber and Airbnb at the time and marking the zenith of investor fervor for the co-working provider.[52][53] This surge stemmed from optimistic projections of WeWork as a scalable, tech-enabled platform disrupting traditional office real estate, with backers emphasizing network effects and global expansion potential over immediate profitability.[54] However, such analogies faltered under scrutiny, as WeWork's model relied on securing long-term building leases—often 10-15 years—while offering short-term subleases, amassing lease liabilities that dwarfed its asset-light pretensions and exposed it to occupancy risks absent in ride-sharing or lodging platforms.[55]
Miguel McKelvey, in his capacity as Chief Culture and Creative Officer, contributed to the narrative by championing WeWork's community-building initiatives—such as events, shared amenities, and branded experiences—as a durable moat fostering member retention and differentiation from commoditized flexible spaces.[10][56] He argued that these elements addressed innate human needs for connection, underpinning projections of loyalty that justified aggressive growth assumptions in investor pitches. Yet, this overlooked the flexible market's structural dynamics, where short-term contracts enable high tenant turnover, with industry patterns showing members frequently switching providers for cost or location advantages, thus eroding claims of entrenched community value.[57]
While the $47 billion figure facilitated WeWork's recruitment of top talent and accelerated international footprint to over 800 locations, it decoupled markedly from operational realities, including mounting cash burn rates that reached $1.9 billion in annual losses by mid-2019.[5] Investor behavior, typified by SoftBank's Masayoshi Son's outsized bets on visionary founders, amplified this bubble, prioritizing hockey-stick growth metrics over discounted cash flow analyses that would reveal unsustainable economics.[54] Critics, including financial analysts, highlighted how such hype masked leverage vulnerabilities, setting the stage for later recalibrations without crediting inherent business merits alone.[58]
WeWork Decline and Failures
Failed IPO Attempt (2019)
WeWork, co-founded by Miguel McKelvey and Adam Neumann, confidentially filed for an initial public offering (IPO) in December 2018, with the public S-1 registration statement released on August 14, 2019.[59] The filing disclosed a net loss of $1.92 billion for 2018, despite revenue growth to $1.82 billion, highlighting escalating operational costs and heavy reliance on expansion funding.[60] It also revealed governance concerns, including Neumann's outsized control through super-voting shares and self-dealing transactions, while downplaying McKelvey's co-founding role in favor of Neumann's narrative.[61]
The disclosures triggered immediate investor skepticism, slashing WeWork's private valuation from a peak of $47 billion—set by SoftBank in January 2019—to offers around $10-20 billion by early September.[62][63] Market analysts scrutinized the core lease arbitrage model, where WeWork signed long-term leases (averaging 15 years) with landlords totaling $47.2 billion in future obligations as of June 30, 2019, while offering short-term memberships to tenants, exposing the firm to vacancy risks and inflexibility in economic downturns.[59][60]
Proponents viewed WeWork as a disruptive platform redefining workspace through community and scalability, arguing its growth metrics justified premium valuations amid tech-like hype. Critics, however, likened it to a Ponzi-like scheme dependent on perpetual capital inflows to mask unsustainable losses and lease mismatches, with independent research firms labeling the IPO "the most ridiculous" due to negative cash flows exceeding $2 billion annually.[60][61] By September 30, 2019, WeWork indefinitely postponed the IPO amid weak demand and regulatory hurdles, marking a rapid unraveling precipitated by the S-1's empirical exposure of financial fragility.[64][65]
Bankruptcy Filing (2023)
WeWork filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on November 6, 2023, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey, disclosing approximately $15 billion in assets and more than $18 billion in liabilities.[66][67] The filing reflected the culmination of financial strains originating from the company's 2019 valuation peak, where aggressive expansion via long-term lease commitments outpaced revenue generation from short-term memberships, creating a mismatch vulnerable to market shifts.[68] Post-failed IPO, WeWork's occupancy rates declined amid investor pullback and operational scrutiny, with pandemic-induced remote work trends further eroding demand as closures in 2020 led to $3.2 billion in losses, only marginally improved from $3.5 billion in 2019.[69]
The COVID-19 shift to remote work intensified these pressures, reducing office utilization globally and underscoring the unsustainability of WeWork's model, which depended on high-occupancy flexible spaces but faced fixed lease costs exceeding $2.9 billion in accrued debt by filing.[70] Despite SoftBank's interventions—including a $9.5 billion bailout in October 2019 and total investments surpassing $16 billion—these proved insufficient to offset cumulative losses, culminating in SoftBank writing down over $14 billion on its stake.[71][72][73]
By November 2023, WeWork's trading valuation had eroded to $44.5 million, a stark remnant from its $47 billion private appraisal four years prior.[5] The restructuring process enabled rejection of unprofitable leases and a $4 billion debt reduction via court-approved plan in May 2024, but it entailed widespread location consolidations and workforce reductions as the company downsized from hundreds of sites.[74] McKelvey's pre-2020 involvement as co-founder in shaping the expansion vision indirectly contributed to this overcommitment to leases, which locked in costs during a period of unchecked growth that later amplified insolvency risks when revenue faltered.[68]
Controversies and Criticisms
Business Model Flaws and Financial Losses
WeWork's business model centered on acquiring large office spaces through long-term leases, typically 10-15 years, and subleasing them to customers on short-term, flexible memberships, creating inherent risks from mismatched lease durations and demand volatility.[75][76] This structure exposed the company to real estate market cycles, where economic downturns could reduce occupancy while fixed lease obligations persisted, as evidenced by projections in the 2019 S-1 filing warning of potential inability to sublet amid recessions.[77][78] Critics noted that sustained profitability required near-constant high utilization rates—often above 80%—to cover escalating rent payments, a threshold vulnerable to fluctuations in freelance and startup demand.[79]
Financial performance underscored these vulnerabilities, with net losses reaching $1.9 billion in 2018 on $1.8 billion in revenue, more than doubling from $933 million the prior year, driven by aggressive expansion and high fixed costs.[80][81] In the first half of 2019, losses accelerated to $905 million on $1.54 billion revenue, reflecting cumulative pre-IPO deficits exceeding $3 billion since inception, per S-1 disclosures.[59][82] High customer acquisition costs further strained economics, subsidized by venture capital but yielding low lifetime value per member, as marketing and sales expenses ballooned to attract tenants amid competition from traditional leases.[83]
While WeWork invested in proprietary software for space utilization and community analytics—potentially optimizing occupancy in theory—the model's reliance on subletting premiums ignored fundamental arbitrage limits in commercial real estate, where short-term rates rarely sustainably exceed long-term commitments without scale efficiencies that never materialized.[84][75] Investor scrutiny during the 2019 IPO process highlighted how growth metrics masked these issues, with adjusted EBITDA excluding lease costs obscuring true cash burn tied to over $47 billion in future lease liabilities.[77][85] Ultimately, the approach prioritized hype-driven scaling over viable unit economics, rendering claims of tech-enabled disruption untenable against empirical loss trajectories.
Cult-Like Culture and Leadership Accountability
WeWork's internal culture emphasized utopian ideals, with rhetoric framing the company as a mission to "elevate the world’s consciousness" and create a "capitalist kibbutz" where employees made "a life, not just a living."[86] As Chief Culture and Creative Officer, Miguel McKelvey shaped these elements by designing office layouts—such as narrow hallways and open desks—to promote communal interaction and loyalty among staff, often at the expense of fostering dissent or [scrutiny](/page/Scruti ny) of operational weaknesses.[86] He also oversaw signature events like TGIM (Thank God It's Monday) parties and the annual Summer Camp, which blended inspirational talks with intensive socializing, mandatory for employees and reinforcing a family-like devotion that insiders likened to cultish dynamics.[87]
These practices empirically hindered accountability, as former executives reported a pervasive reluctance to escalate problems, encapsulated in the observation that "you don’t bring bad news to the cult leader," which delayed internal reckoning with misalignments between aspirational narratives and reality.[86] McKelvey's direct involvement in curating such environments amplified this effect, prioritizing experiential loyalty and performative enthusiasm over mechanisms for critical feedback on non-financial priorities like sustainable growth practices.[87] While some attributed the approach to innovative motivation suited for rapid scaling, others critiqued it as entrenching VC-fueled delusion, where cultural rituals masked the need for pragmatic evaluation.[88]
McKelvey's leadership in this domain warrants scrutiny for contributing to a dynamic where cultural imperatives supplanted rigorous internal governance, as evidenced by employee accounts of slave-like dedication amid unchecked expansion.[86] The company's eventual 2023 bankruptcy filing underscored free-market self-correction, wherein flawed internal incentives—unmitigated by cultural distortions—led to inevitable contraction without perpetual external validation.[5] This outcome highlights how, absent disciplined accountability, even well-intentioned cultural engineering can perpetuate avoidable harms through deferred realism.
Departure from WeWork
Exit in 2020
Miguel McKelvey, WeWork's co-founder and chief culture officer, announced his resignation on June 5, 2020, stating he would depart the company at the end of the month after a decade of involvement.[89][90] His exit marked the departure of the last original co-founder, following Adam Neumann's ouster in September 2019 amid the failed initial public offering.[91]
The resignation occurred during a period of intensified turmoil for WeWork, including SoftBank's ongoing interventions after injecting billions to stabilize the firm post-IPO collapse, widespread layoffs, and mounting legal pressures such as a class action lawsuit filed in early June 2020 alleging misleading disclosures during the IPO process.[89] McKelvey communicated his decision via email to employees, emphasizing the difficulty but necessity of stepping away as the company navigated restructuring under new leadership.[92]
Details of McKelvey's exit terms were not publicly disclosed, with no reports of a substantial severance package akin to the approximately $1.7 billion in compensation and equity arrangements Neumann secured from SoftBank upon his departure.[93] McKelvey transitioned out of operational roles while retaining financial interests tied to his founding stake, though the precise structure remained private amid WeWork's valuation plunge from $47 billion to under $8 billion by mid-2020.[94][95]
Personal Reflections on Guilt and Lessons
In a 2025 interview on the "Scale with Soul" podcast, McKelvey admitted to experiencing deep guilt over his personal wealth accumulation amid widespread employee layoffs and the erosion of colleagues' professional aspirations following WeWork's downturn.[6] He specifically noted, "I achieved some degree of wealth from WeWork and a lot of other people didn’t," underscoring the inequity where founders exited with substantial gains while thousands faced unemployment after the 2019 failed IPO and subsequent 2020-2023 contractions, including over 2,400 layoffs in 2019 alone. This sentiment extended to visceral regrets, such as failing individual employees whose livelihoods depended on the company's vision, exemplified by his reflection: "I failed that woman. Where is she going? Back to one of those other companies where people could care less about her."[6]
McKelvey described a period of emotional "wallowing" post-2020 exit, where intellectual analysis proved insufficient to alleviate the pain, stating his heart still raced when confronting these failures, indicating incomplete resolution even years later.[6] He advocated a process of fully feeling and accepting such accountability—"Go in here. Find it. Feel it fully. Accept it. Try to let it go"—as essential for founders to avoid prolonged stagnation, rejecting purely rational detachment in favor of empirical emotional reckoning with outcomes.[6]
On lessons derived, McKelvey highlighted the dangers of hyper-growth obsession, reflecting hindsight recognition that WeWork's aggressive expansion—scaling to 800 locations across 39 countries by 2019 while posting $1.9 billion in losses that year—neglected core unit economics, such as per-seat profitability amid long-term leases and variable demand.[6] This admission aligns with causal analysis of the firm's overreliance on investor capital from SoftBank's $18.5 billion infusion in 2019, which masked unsustainable metrics until market scrutiny during the IPO exposed them.[6] While owning founder-level responsibility for prioritizing vision over financial rigor, McKelvey balanced this against exogenous shocks like the COVID-19 pandemic's remote-work surge, which accelerated lease defaults and bankruptcy in November 2023, without shifting blame to evade personal agency.[6] Such candor illustrates founder accountability as rooted in causal self-examination, distinct from external narratives that might dilute responsibility.
Post-WeWork Activities
Shift to Socially Oriented Investments
Following his departure from WeWork in June 2020, McKelvey redirected his capital toward ventures emphasizing community impact and operational sustainability rather than aggressive scaling. This approach contrasted with WeWork's prior emphasis on rapid expansion, which had prioritized valuation growth over profitability and led to significant financial strain. McKelvey's investments began to target sectors like domestic manufacturing and social services, reflecting a focus on long-term viability informed by WeWork's overleveraged model.[89][95]
In 2022, McKelvey acquired a controlling stake in American Giant, a San Francisco-based apparel company, for $10 million, aiming to bolster U.S.-based production and factory revitalization amid offshoring trends. The brand specializes in American-made clothing, such as hoodies and activewear, using domestic cotton and labor to promote economic localization and supply chain resilience. This move aligned with broader critiques of globalized manufacturing's vulnerabilities, prioritizing job creation and quality control over cost-cutting exports. Concurrently, he co-founded and primarily funded Proto Collective, a sneaker brand leveraging a BIPOC-led team to innovate in footwear prototyping and production, challenging dominant industry players through efficient, creator-focused design processes.[95][96]
McKelvey also supported community-oriented infrastructure, including a social center for seniors in New York, designed to foster intergenerational connections and address urban isolation among the elderly. In the proptech space, he participated in Kambio's seed round on April 28, 2022, backing a platform that enables custom home builders to use real-time 3D configurators and modular architecture for faster, more efficient construction. These selections underscored an empirical pivot to models with tangible utility—such as streamlined building processes reducing waste—and avoided the speculative bubbles that undermined WeWork's real estate-heavy strategy.[95][97][98]
Recent Projects and Founder Mode (2025)
In May 2025, McKelvey announced his return to "zero-to-one" founder mode, the intensive early-stage entrepreneurship he last experienced when co-founding WeWork in 2009, after years of involvement in remote U.S.-based projects while residing in London.[99][100] This shift reflects a deliberate pivot toward hands-on creation of novel initiatives, contrasting with his post-WeWork advisory and investment roles that emphasized scaling existing ventures.[99]
A key element of this renewed focus is his collaboration with Arnold Fomété, initiated after meeting the previous summer; McKelvey described an immediate alignment leading to joint development of an unnamed project aimed at reimagining conventional approaches in its domain.[101] Fomété's background, spanning Cameroon, South Africa—where he encountered racism—and London, informs the venture's emphasis on resilience and alternative pathways, though specifics remain undisclosed as of October 2025.[101]
Complementing this, McKelvey continues as a strategic advisor to Known Holdings, a firm targeting racial, social, and climate impact investments in under-capitalized communities, prioritizing tangible outcomes over speculative growth.[102] His activities in London, including coaching the London Elite U14 basketball team, underscore a preference for localized, community-rooted engagement that favors empirical progress and personal accountability drawn from WeWork's overambitious expansion.[103] By October 2025, these efforts maintain a modest scale, with McKelvey stressing data-informed decisions to mitigate risks of hype-driven missteps.[104]
Personal Life and Legacy
Family and Private Life
McKelvey was married to Hiyam Khalifa, a former investment banker, until their divorce in 2017.[105] [7] He has a son from this marriage, born around 2009.[106]
Following his relocation to London in 2020, McKelvey married Jessica Hyman in an English countryside ceremony.[14] He has kept subsequent family details private, with no public records of additional children. McKelvey has emphasized dedicating uninterrupted time to family, such as setting aside his phone upon returning home to focus on personal relationships.[106]
Net Worth and Broader Impact
McKelvey's net worth peaked at an estimated $2.9 billion in early 2019, driven by WeWork's then-soaring valuation, but plummeted following the company's failed IPO and subsequent equity dilution from SoftBank's bailout later that year.[10] Forbes revised his fortune to $900 million amid these events, reflecting the sharp reduction in his ownership stake as investors imposed restructuring to avert collapse.[10] While McKelvey benefited from some pre-crash equity monetization, WeWork's 2023 bankruptcy filing further eroded residual value, though precise current figures remain undisclosed and likely lower given the firm's asset liquidation and debt restructuring.[10]
Beyond personal finances, McKelvey's role in WeWork contributed to a dual legacy in the commercial real estate sector: a stark cautionary example of unsustainable valuations detached from operational fundamentals, where aggressive expansion and speculative growth led to over $47 billion in peak enterprise value evaporating amid governance lapses and market corrections. This episode underscored causal risks in venture-backed scaling, prompting investors to prioritize profitability metrics over hype-driven multiples in flexible office models. Conversely, WeWork under McKelvey's co-founding influence mainstreamed flexible workspaces, catalyzing industry-wide adoption of short-term leases and community-oriented amenities that competitors like Industrious have emulated in more restrained, cash-flow-positive formats.[107]
Ultimately, McKelvey's trajectory illustrates that entrepreneurial ventures inherently involve high-stakes experimentation, where WeWork's downfall—rooted in mismatched incentives and overleveraged commitments—serves as empirical validation of failure's role in refining market practices rather than indicting innovation itself, as evidenced by the sector's post-WeWork resilience with global flexible space occupancy rebounding toward pre-pandemic levels by 2024.
Disclaimer: This profile is based on publicly available information. No endorsement or affiliation is implied.
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