In just a little over a decade, the co-working phenomenon has revolutionized the way millions of people work. International co-working giant WeWork is now the largest corporate occupier of commercial real estate in London, second in size only to the British government. Founded in New York City in 2010, WeWork recently received a $20 billion valuation (according to Forbes' Steven Bertoni), a testament to how much the model has taken off. The only U.S. startups with higher valuations are Airbnb and Uber.
Co-working spaces aren't just for digital nomads and startup entrepreneurs anymore, either. Fortune 500 companies like GM, GE, IBM and Microsoft all rent office space from WeWork. In fact, big businesses now comprise 30 percent of WeWork's monthly sales, according to Bertoni.
Companies that size can undoubtedly find more economical office space, but they flock to WeWork for something more intangible than square footage. WeWork, in fact, sells a culture of work far removed from the staid office environment of past decades. The emphasis is on community and work as fun. The company's hybrid of hospitality and technology has made its co-working model by far the most successful in the world.