BROADCASTS.com

Back in 2017, Casey Woo decided it was time to graduate from early-stage companies.

\u201cWhat I like to tell people is that as an operator you will be characterized and judged by the age of your businesses,\u201d remarks Woo, who from 2011 to 2017 had served in a succession of finance leadership roles at a number of early-stage \u201cA-B-C series\u201d\u2013funded companies.

\u201cAt that point, I had three A-B-Cs under my belt, and for me, the concern was that if I took a fourth, I\u2019d be labeled a \u2018Van Wilder,\u2019\u201d recalls Woo, naming the Ryan Reynolds character whose seventh year of college served as the backdrop for a National Lampoon movie.

\u201cI understood what hypergrowth and product market fit were, but I was not able to say that I had seen \u2018scale,\u2019\u201d Woo reports, as he explains what led him to nab the position that he now credits with having opened his next CFO chapter\u2014and enabled him to add \u201cscale\u201d to the list of descriptors in his professional portfolio.

The role to which Woo refers was noteworthy as much for its transformative effect on Woo\u2019s future as it was for the company itself: WeWork.

\u201cThey needed a regional CFO, but this was a huge step up for me, as the size of my P&L on Day 1 was 10 times greater than that of any other business I had ever been a part of,\u201d reports Woo, who from 2017 to 2019 oversaw finance and operations for the flexible workspace company\u2019s U.S. western region and Canada.

At the same time, Woo\u2019s timing placed him inside the headline-grabbing WeWork saga that would ultimately lead to the ouster of the firm\u2019s founder and CEO, Adam Neumann, and withdrawal of the company\u2019s IPO.

\u201cWe were asked by some of the biggest investors in the company to go fast, so in a weird way we were doing what we were told \u2026 and following orders,\u201d comments Woo, whose tour of duty at WeWork gave his real estate credentials the boost needed to allow him to soon thereafter step into the CFO office at Landing, a company specializing in\xa0flexible-lease apartments.

Asked what lessons he may have gleaned from his days at WeWork, Woo observes: \u201cAfter Adam left, everything changed\u2014the culture went from \u2018Go, go, go!\u2019 and \u2018We\u2019re top of the world!\u2019 to the reverse and layoffs.\u201d

It sounds like Van Wilder may have finally graduated.\xa0\u2013Jack Sweeney\xa0