Month: August 2019

WeWhat?

WeWork, or The We Company as it is now officially known, could launch its circa-$3bn US IPO as early as next week.

That’s despite some brutal commentary since the provider of flexible office space – or “space-as-a-service” if you subscribe to the spin – publicly filed with the SEC for its New York IPO on August 14.

It might even be said the press coverage WeWork and its co-founder Adam Neumann have received as the company prepares to go public is worse than Uber’s ahead of its debut in May. That’s saying something.

Here’s one cutting but hardly unique example of the critiques: WeWTF by Scott Galloway.

Galloway writes with impressive flourish and identifies plenty of red flags for investors contemplating this investment.

To rework the famous porcine analogy, WeWork is a pig caked in lipstick.

WeWork is “disrupting” real estate but instead of tenants, it has members. Instead of rents, it has membership fees.

Unfortunately, instead of profits (or funds from operations) you might associate with a REIT, WeWork has the big losses and poor corporate governance we have now come to expect from Silicon Valley unicorns.

After the disappointments of fellow “unicorns” Uber and Lyft earlier this year, investors are right to be very skeptical of this offering.

That said, the missing piece of information is what valuation WeWork is coming at. That won’t be known until the deal launches (next week or the week after).

The last private round led by Japan’s Softbank valued WeWork at $47bn but as Galloway points out, this investment came with a liquidation preference that means Softbank would get its money back first in the event of a sale or bankruptcy. In other words, it might not be a fair measure of WeWork’s value or any real indication of where underwriters will pitch the IPO.

WeWork has doubled revenues in the past two fiscal years and is on track to do it again this year. Though not necessarily a safe assumption, another doubling of revenues next year would see WeWork generating around $6bn of revenue (in calendar 2020). Put that on Uber Technologies’s current multiple of 4x-5x forward sales and you can get to a little more reasonable $24bn-$30bn valuation.

Reading the S-1 filing, there are clearly many other problems, including the company’s overly complicated corporate structure and related party transactions. These definitely should be discounted in the valuation.

Though it doesn’t really sound like Neumann’s style, a more reasonable valuation starting point would be one way to blunt the choral criticism.

Ten Ways to Make a Little (and I mean a little) Extra Money Without Trying Too Hard*

So you want to make some money on the side?

You may have noticed there has been an explosion in the number of sites and apps that enable you to do just that.

It really is extraordinary how many there are. Many are slight twists on similar marketing ideas. But the really hard bit is working out which ones are worth your time. That’s what this article is all about.

By being smart and careful about how you use the Internet, it is really not hard to make $100 or more a month without interrupting your day job (much). Is that all, you say?

Well, if you really want to explore the different money-making strategies available, there are opportunities to make a whole lot more.

In some cases, your payment is collected in the form of cash, usually by being sent to your PayPal account. In other cases, you might get gift cards. For sites you use often (Amazon, for instance), this is really almost as good as cash.

After testing many different sites and apps to find the most credible ones, here’s some of my favorite ideas for making money online.

1. Straight to the Inbox

The nice thing about InboxDollars is that members can accumulate money in a range of different and entertaining ways, so that you are not just spending your time trudging through long-winded surveys. There are surveys here of course, but also games, special offers, TV to watch and competitions that allow you to gradually accumulate cash. You’ll get $5 just for joining but will need to get to $30 before cashing out. Compared to some other sites like this, InboxDollars seems a relatively painless way to make money (if you are a little patient). And unlike some other sites, you can get paid in cash (PayPal or check), not just gift cards.

2. Bing Me

Microsoft/Bing Rewards is a no-brainer because you can accumulate rewards by searching the web, something you are probably doing anyway (though maybe on rival Google). Read the news or click on Bing’s “Daily Set” of extra points and you’ll probably learn a lot along the way as well. The only drawback is that some new members are not offered the most popular Amazon Gift Card redemption option, though there are other popular retailer’s gift cards you can apply your points to (Target is one). You should easily be able to accumulate points worth $10-$15 a month on this alone if you make Bing usage part of your daily online routine.

3. Check out that Swag

Though a bit heavy on the surveys (some of which are very long), Swagbucks is one of the most popular ways to make money online. Swagbucks is not just surveys, but this is where the big points (called Swagbucks or SB of course) are. Make sure that if you are making a big purchase (say, home insurance) that you check to see if Swagbucks has a special offer on the site. By doing so, you might be able to collect a lot of SB in one hit. SB are best redeemed for Amazon, Walmart or Visa gift cards but there are other options as well. Again there is a $5 bonus just for signing up and there’s a whole community of people with ideas (check on Youtube) about how to use the site effectively. This is one of your most reliable sources of online money out there. MyPoints and ShopAtHome are two partner sites that are similar to Swagbucks that are also worth checking out.

4. Surveys everywhere

Now if you want survey-focused sites that allow you to accumulate points and cash relatively quickly there a few more to choose from. Some of our favorites include Survey Junkie, CashKarma and of course those broader sites already mentioned (Swagbucks, InboxDollars). Survey Junkie allows you to cash out at the $10 mark (a bit more liberal than some other sites) and you can get well on your way to your first $10 just by signing up and picking up introductory points. The points are awarded instantly, you don’t have to accumulate millions of points before you can cash out and the site is user-friendly. Bread is another to take a look at, but in our experience it was not as easy to make progress to your first cash-out target. You may not get rich from these sites, but again a little supplemental income is handy if you have a spare hour or two in your day.

5. Canine instincts

We didn’t say you had to stay in the house all day. For dog lovers, there’s Rover, an app that connects dog walkers and sitters to dog owners. If you qualify as a dog walker/sitter, you then input your availability and wait until local dog owners reach out to you. After you get aquainted with your new best friend, you will get paid within two days. The site claims you can earn up to $1,000 a month – that might be at the upper end of expectations but this is probably not something you will want to make a full-time job out of it.

6. Gig economy

Now that you’re up and moving, maybe you’ll also want to consider other “gig economy” jobs, most famously those offered by ride sharers Uber and Lyft, but also delivery sites Postmates and DoorDash. It seems there is a lot of competition for drivers, which can only work to your benefit. So if you are up for it, why not take a look at them all and see which suits you best. We are talking better than minimum wage here (Postmates, for instance, advertises at $22 an hour, and, well, maybe it is simpler to deliver things than to drive people around). Depending on your circumstances, this might be better as a side gig.

7. Spend it to make it

Consider well-established cashback sites like Ibotta and Ebates. Obviously here you have to spend some money to accumulate earnings/cashback, but if you are spending it anyway, why not use them? These two are the best but an interesting alternative is Stash, which allows you to invest very small amounts in fractional shares. Stash also puts cashback into your account when you shop at a participating retailer. Spend and invest at the time – it may sound like a contradiction, but again if you are spending the money anyway…Anyway, there’s a whole lot of other sites like Stash (Acorns, Digit, Aspiration, Betterment, Robinhood and Clink) that explore a similar concept, which is how to save without trying too hard.

8. Snapped up

Did you know you can make money by uploading and selling photos snapped on your cellphone? An app called Foap allows you to do just that.

When a brand, agency or just anyone who likes your photos purchases a video or picture from your online portfolio, Foap shares half the profit with you.

That might not be for everyone, depending on what sort of photos you take, but it is an intriguing option for the many budding photographers out there.

9. What’s the verdict?

Here’s something a bit different. Become an online mock juror and help attorneys test their cases before they go to trial. One of these sites is eJury, which pays jurors $5 to $10 per case depending on how long it goes for. Like the real thing, only citizens can sign up for this one.

10. Us humans aren’t done yet.

So much for AI. Amazon Mechanical Turk is all about getting humans to do the simple things that, surprisingly enough, computers cannot do.

Apparently that includes tasks such as moderating content, performing data deduplication and research. If you sign up as a worker and tackle some of the higher paid tasks that are offered, you might be able to make a buck or two.

So there you have it.

My parting words: Yes, you should be careful what sites and apps you sign up to online, but those mentioned above are legit, will help you avoid paying full price for most things and/or will earn you money if you use them consistently.

*Some of the links in this story may generate referral bonuses for the author.