My understanding is that they own some properties and rent others on long term contracts. Therefore, WeWork lives off the arbitrage between long term and short term obligations so it's basically a REIT. Most REITs are highly leveraged and almost entirely debt funded. I think it's actually weird that they have VC and try to act like a tech startup.

There is no new technology in WeWork and there are no legal ways to create or corner markets in real estate; people have been trying for millennia. Unless they have a highly scalable revenue stream hidden somewhere, we can expect that their valuation will, at best, grow on a similar curve to other REITs.

If I owned their equity, it would be because I got it super cheap and expected them to start paying a dividend sometime soon.

I would not own their debt except through a broad based ETF. It's really hard to make long term profits on junk bonds except by playing the law of averages.