WeWork in Southeast Asia with Turochas Fuad

Leong Chung Wei Bernard -

Turochas “T” Fuad, managing director of WeWork, Southeast Asia joined us for a conversation on his journey as a serial entrepreneur and his current role to expand WeWork across Southeast Asia. We started from his early career with Yahoo! and Skype and subsequently with the acquisition of Spacemob to WeWork. We discussed WeWork, their products and services offered to different customers from startups to multi-national corporations and their geographical expansion across Southeast Asia. Last but not least, he also shared his thoughts on how the co-working spaces are evolving across Southeast Asia.

Here are the interesting show notes and links to the discussion (with time-stamps included):

  • Turochas “T” Fuad, Managing Director of WeWork Southeast Asia (@turochas , LinkedIn) [0:25]
    • How did you start your career? [1:00]
    • You have started Travelmob which was acquired by Home Away, and then Spacemob which is now acquired and expanded into Wework Southeast Asia. In starting both companies and leading them to acquisitions, what are the thought processes you have to go thru to make these acquisitions work? [2:21]
    • In your career journey, what are the interesting career lessons learnt? [4:39]
  • WeWork in Southeast Asia and co-working spaces [6:53]
    • Introduction: WeWork provides shared workspaces, technology startup subculture communities, and services for entrepreneurs, freelancers, startups, small businesses and large enterprises. Founded in 2010, it is headquartered in New York City. WeWork has a current valuation of roughly US$20 billion and manages 10M square feet of office space. Founders: Adam Neumann and Miguel McKelvey.
    • Can you briefly introduce WeWork to my audience and what is its current vision and mission? [7:42]
    • WeWork is known for its culture, can you briefly talk about how that culture empowers their employees to work with their customers?  [9:22]
    • How does WeWork enable personal fulfilment and productive work through its culture to the customers who are working there everyday? [11:52]
    • What are the current products or services that WeWork provide to small and medium businesses and to corporations as well? [13:43]
    • How does technology enable WeWork with their customers? [16:15]
    • What is the current footprint of Wework in Southeast Asia? Where are the most interesting locations in the region? [18:45]
    • How is the experience for any startup or corporation different in Wework as compared if they have worked in any co-working space out there and where do you see the co-working spaces in Southeast Asia going? [20:40]
    • Wework has also branched out from its traditional businesses (Welive, Wegrow and Rise by We), will we see these new services enter into Southeast Asia? [24:00]
  • Closing [25:01]
    • Can you recommend a book, movie, podcast or anything else that has recently impact your personal or work life? [25:16]
    • Where can my audience find you? 

Podcast Information:

The show is hosted by Bernard Leong (@bernardleong & weibo) and are sponsored by Ideal Workspace (Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn) with their new Altizen Desk (Twitter, Facebook, Medium). Sound credits for the intro music: Taro Iwashiro, “The Beginning” from Red Cliff Soundtrack.