BY ROBERT CYRAN

WeWork’s constant labor is to keep itself looking different. The shared-office provider’s latest purchase is Meetup. The social network’s real-world get-togethers might fill WeWork’s hip office space at slow times. But like investing in a wave-pool firm, starting a school and opening a gym, the consistent theme is doing pretty much anything to avoid looking like a real-estate firm.

Meetup helps hobbyists and other groups organize online and then get together in real life. Since meetings usually happen outside business hours, establishing WeWork as a default location is a potentially clever way to use space more intensively, increasing profit. Yet a joint venture – or several – might have offered similar benefits for less money.

This points to the broader motive. WeWork said earlier this year it is running at about breakeven in EBITDA terms and hopes monthly sales will reach an annualized rate of $1 billion by the end of 2017. That’s admirable for a fast-growing firm, but rival IWG, which runs Regus, is valued at about five times estimated EBITDA. WeWork’s valuation – roughly $20 billion after its latest funding round – depends on being something more than a traditional real-estate player.

To that end, WeWork heavily promotes its image as a purveyor of an ambitious, hip and tech-savvy lifestyle. Stylish décor and microbrew beer on tap are just the start. The firm has also established flexible apartment-rental buildings (WeLive), a gym with a spiritual bent (Rise by We), an apps and services store (WeWork Services), and even a school for budding entrepreneurs aged three to nine (WeGrow).

An investment in a wave-generating equipment maker and a recent deal to buy the classic Lord & Taylor building in Manhattan for $850 million are in the same vein, although perhaps more perplexing business decisions. Perhaps some of these, like Meetup, can bring to WeWork’s offices both services and a quality that’s hard to measure with mere financial calculations. That’s the trick the company has to pull off if it wants to be a New York tech upstart, not just another Big Apple-headquartered property play.

First published Nov. 28, 2017