Knotel: Amazon WorkSpace MBrew

Francis Scialabba

While MySpace was busy ruining friendships in the early aughts, Facebook was readying to upend life as we know it. Knotel CEO Amol Sarva thinks his flexible workspace platform is the Facebook to WeWork’s MySpace. This week on Morning Brew’s weekly podcast Business Casual, we get into the nitty gritty of flexible office space and the future of work. Sarva isn’t afraid to name names...and cast doubt on WeWork’s financials. More highlights from the conversation: Sarva explains the difficulties of cauterizing “ethical rot” vs. “financial rot.” He makes a case for celebrating the coming recession. Sarva argues that although real estate can be capital intensive, flexible workspace will thrive when things go south. For anyone looking to optimize your life—Sarva’s point about why we don’t build our own iPhones is for you. When he’s not plotting to out-Zuckerberg WeWork, Sarva 1) got his PhD in cognitive science at Stanford 2) co-founded Virgin Mobile USA and 3) uses both “Faustian” and “schadenfreude” in the interview...so you know you’re going to learn something. Listen to the episode here: Apple / Spotify / Luminary