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Sandeep Mathrani

CEO, Wework

Search every verified Sandeep Mathrani interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Sandeep Mathrani, CEO of WeWork India, discussed the company's performance and outlook during a Q4FY26 earnings call on May 1, 2026. He stated that the company ended "net debt negative for the first time in our history" and received a "two notch credit upgrade to A+." Mathrani described a structural shift in office leasing, noting that "five year plus leases have collapsed from 40% of enterprises a few years ago to only 8% today" and argued that "flex has become the structural answer to work workforce volatility." He also introduced Rivet, a standalone design and build business that offers WeWork's in-house capability to enterprises, landlords, and developers without requiring a WeWork center commitment. In a May 5, 2026 podcast interview, Mathrani reflected on his career turning around companies such as General Growth Properties and WeWork. He described his approach to turnarounds, stating that "20% of the assets are very low quality--offload them; 30% are great and 50% are fine but they give you scale." He recalled that at WeWork, "the math was 6 billion of expenses, three and a half billion of revenue" and that he "made a decision to cut two and a half billion of expenses," reducing the workforce from 15,000 to 3,500 employees. Mathrani said he "never really think[s] of a glass half empty" and described his current role at Atlas Hill as "the best time of my life."

Recent appearances

Notable quotes

“I thought the board uh uh you know should have allowed me to do the three things I wanted to do uh which is uh merge the company uh with my biggest competitor, consolidate the industry, okay um and um and buy back the debt at a huge discount. And uh we had done such a good job of raising the revenue and the board felt one they didn't want to merge because they wanted to capitalize on our growth individually which I t”

“I had to restructure 20 billion of debt, okay? On 200 plus loans and you know and uh we had a plan for each one, okay? and they had and you had to execute and once you execute you build a reputation, okay, of of putting forward a plan that that works.”

“I think the number one, two, three, four is who is the borrower. The reputation of the borrower, the reputation of the person. Uh there's a lot to be done on credibility. That's first. Second is what's the plan? Okay. And you know, have you done it before? Is it executionable? Okay. Then third is what's the exit? What's my exit? Okay. Is there an exit? Are we structuring it right or are we just doing this for a tempo”

“The math was 6 billion of expenses, three and a half billion of revenue. I don't think anyone needs a calculator. That math doesn't work. Okay. I mean, that's what actually fascinated me to be honest and said, 'You guys think what?'”

“I made a decision to cut two and a half billion of expenses. I said the only way we're moving forward is if we can cut two and a half billion of expenses. Okay? So that we can be a break even company and then we can start to grow.”

“We have 2 billion dollars of revenue. We need to make a profit. If you've got $2 billion in revenue, there's got to be a way to make a profit. So, we've gone through the tough things of restructuring our staffs, right? Our our employees and uh expense base matches the new portfolio we have today. And so, we have turned that corner. The last uh two quarters have been IBIDA profitable, traditional GAP IBIDA profitable,”

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