WeWork’s IPO prospectus has been mocked and vilified for its eyebrow-raising calculations, loose corporate governance and bizarre internal dealings with its CEO and co-founder Adam Neumann.

But proptech consultant and speaker Antony Slumbers has said that non–real estate commentators who have fiercely criticised the company are guilty of failing to recognise its importance, and what is, “if not unique, then extraordinary about it”.

In a LinkedIn blog post, Slumbers has praised WeWork for being a remarkable, super innovative and forward-thinking operator that has fundamentally changed the real estate industry, regardless of whether it ends up failing as a business during the next downturn or not. Recognising that WeWork’s preliminary IPO document has a number of glaring problems