Bangalore: While some start-ups need a lot of it, some need only a little and others none at all. This time it’s not about money, it’s about office space.

With a virtual office, start-ups don’t need to be present in a physical location to have an address. They use the service to get an address in a well-known business park, but continue to work out of a hole-in-the-wall office that might be miles away. Virtual offices have emerged as a real option for start-ups because of rocketing real estate prices in India’s commercial hubs.

“This is a new concept that is catching up from the West and start-ups love it," says Christina Ghose, owner of Stylus Serviced Offices, which has close to 100 registered virtual address holders across the country.

The service is available in all the important cities in India for prices between ₹ 2,500 and ₹ 7,000 per month. All official correspondence that reaches the address is kept for the company to pick up—a more basic form of the service available in the West, where legal and concierge services are usually part of the deal.

Srinivas Shekhar, director of Advant Trek Technology, owns a virtual office in EGL Business Park, Bangalore, and says he chose the option because of the small size of his team, scattered corporate presence and cost effectiveness. “But really, the main reason we opted for this service was because EGL gave us a prestigious location to talk about."

Though many start-ups choose virtual offices in a “cool" business park, some still want to operate in business parks by sharing the physical space with other—relatively new—firms.

There are various ways to share an office with another growing company. The most popular are business centres, where large office space providers offer seating to companies on a per-seat basis in a technology park with all infrastructural and administrative amenities taken care of. These solutions cost between ₹ 7,000 and ₹ 45,000 per seat, depending on the location.

The main reason for this is cost-effectiveness, but there can be unexpected upsides. “Every month you spend money on rent—as a start-up, you want this amount to be low," says Rathish Balakrishnan, co-founder, Tattva Media and Consulting Pvt. Ltd, who shares a bungalow in Domlur, Bangalore, with another start-up. “It was mainly for cost cutting, but it was especially fun when we shared our space with an online lingerie company."

“It becomes a collaborative space when we share it with two or three other companies. They work with their ideas and we with ours, but when there is a problem, we can shout for help across the room saying ‘Hey guys, check this out while you are having tea’," says Santhosh Panda, co-founder and CEO of explara.com, a Pune-based events and ticketing firm. It has an independent office in Pune, but uses shared office space in its other branches in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai and Bangalore.

One start-up shares its offices to help the ecosystem that nurtured it. Raj Sheth, co-founder of RecruiterBox, an online job application tracking company, plans to move into a bigger office space and provide office sharing at a subsidized cost to start-ups.

“We are looking for start-ups to share with, so we can talk to them, discuss problems with them and create a positive energy at work. We don’t want to pass on expenses. We just want to help. Aisa deal kahaan milega (Where will you get a deal like this)?" asks Sheth.

No matter what the scenario, for some start-ups an independent office is still a far-fetched idea. “Every entrepreneur dreams of a glass office with his photograph in front, but it might remain a dream for a long time," says Balakrishnan.

Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter.

Share Via