How these startups offer space solutions to freelancers, startups, and corporates
When Vishal Gaba launched Movified, a social engagement platform for movies, he initially chose to work from home. However, as the team expanded, the need for office space became apparent. Since he didn’t want to spend time on setting up an office from scratch, he thought of hiring a co-working space in Mumbai.
“It’s necessary for the team to brainstorm together as it yields better ideas. I believe that working from a co-working space is not just a fad but necessity of startups. Firstly, a co-working space gives an office area without making a large dent in your pocket. Secondly, you are flocked by techies, startups, and entrepreneurs; and their help is readily available there. Thirdly is networking with these available talents – the most important unsaid part of the ecosystem,” says 30-year-old Vishal, Founder and CEO, Movified.
Research shows that startups who work in a co-working space are four times more likely to succeed than those who don’t. Working in these spaces ensures one will always be surrounded by like-minded, talented individuals and teams which can really benefit you in the short and long term.
We bring to you a list of co-working space startups from across the country, which are offering space solution to their brethren as well as large corporates – to save their employees from the hassle of traveling.
Founded by Amit Ramani, Awfis Space Solutions aims at providing plug and play offices spaces, embedded with the latest technology solutions for ‘just-in-time’ space utilisation. It aims to create Uber in real-estate segment, which means the availability of working space on just-in-time basis. The platform has developed a tailor-made mobile application that enables users to find and book work spaces in its owned/managed centres, as well as the listed third-party meeting rooms in hotels on real-time basis. The startup offers co-working office space solution in Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru.
Launched in August 2013 by Pranav Bhatia, Stirring Minds is a co-working space-cum-incubator for startups in Delhi (NCR).The startup has not launched a formal incubation/funding model as of now, but it exchanges equity for services which differs on a case-by-case basis. The venture leverages its physical presence in the Bay Area, California, to offer connect and support to the Indian startups on a global level.
91Springboard is currently based in Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Noida and Navi Mumbai. It aims to setup its base across the country, wherever there’s a demand of working space. Co-founded by Varun Chawla, Pranay Gupta, and Anand Vemuri, the venture provides plug-and-play office infrastructure to early-stage startups, generally around three to five people, idea-only startups or even no-idea founders. The space is also open to freelancers/small firms that provide services such as design, PR, digital marketing, development, accounting, HR, legal, and administrative support. It operates purely on a rental basis, there is no equity involved.
With its presence in Delhi and Gurgaon, AltF has total four properties in these two cities. It has two cost-effective spaces and two premium spaces. Founded by Sarthak Chhabra and Yogesh Arora, the venture helps startups and freelancers find affordable shared workspaces. The revenue model is based on monthly, weekly, and daily payments. The platform aims to motivate people to share workspace as well as resources and save their time and money.
Founded in 2014 by Deepti Kasbekar, The Mesh declares itself as the first co-working space in Pune. It works on a pay per desk model, where members pay a fixed monthly fee. Realising the nocturnal nature of tech entrepreneurs, it has also introduced a moonlighter’s package for people who wish to rent a desk at night.
If you read the word in running handwriting, it will sound as collaborate. Co-founded by Anurag Parepally, Vinay Peddinti, and Raghuveer Kovuru, Co. Lab. Orate is a Hyderabad-based co-working space solution provider. It says that networking and interacting with people from various fields is really important for a growing company. When the trio looked for it, when they wanted to start up, they found nobody who could provide then the same in Hyderabad. It was either executive spaces or shared offices. They felt that co-working spaces are very rare to be found around the city and there was a need to plug the gap, hence they decided to build Co.Lab.Orate.
Sneed is the acronym of Space for your Need. Based out of Bengaluru, the platform claims to offer a complete solution when it comes to find a co-working space in over 100 location of the country. Founded by Amit Prabhu and Ankit Sonthalia, it is a discovery platform for co-working spaces. On the Sneed platform, a user can find desks, private offices, meeting rooms, and training rooms. It also allows users to book and pay for spaces by searching on parameters of location, type of seat, and duration. Users can book any of these for as short as an hour as well.
With an official launch in November 2014 by Jacky Chow and Kaushal Sanghvi, Breathing Room is a mobile application available on iOS and android devices to book premium work spaces on hourly basis across different cities. The app allows users to check out rates, photographs of the place, amenities available, exclusive offers and then book the space anywhere from between three days and 30 minutes in advance from the day of usage. It solves the perennial problem of users looking for hourly workspaces. To help the suppliers know who they will be hosting, the app insists that users should login only via Facebook or LinkedIn.
Founded in January 2015 by Abhishek Barari, Rahul Shelke, and Neelay Jain, My Cute Office is a Mumbai-based marketplace for sharing vacant work desks, offices, studios and meeting facilities across 17 cities. It helps small businesses save on office setup and rental costs. It allows businesses to rent spaces on hourly, daily, or monthly basis. During May last year, it raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from Lead Angels, an angel group.
According to YourStory Research, there are over 20,000 startups in the country and the number is counting. The top five startup cities (in descending order) are Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Chennai, and Hyderabad with a total number of 16,480 startups.
The sheer number has also produced a huge demand of office working spaces in these cities. To cater the market, based on the idea of shared economy, these cities have witnessed the mushrooming of co-working spaces.
Considering the needs of startups – building network, cheap and affordable rent and flocked by talents – the co-working office spaces offer a win-win situation.