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Networking differently

Added benefits
Last Updated 06 December 2016, 19:03 IST

Bengaluru is home to several startups and not all entrepreneurs can afford their own infrastructure.

While this might have given rise to several co-working spaces in the city, those who choose to work from such spaces often enjoy several other benefits.

With several startups and even consultants working from such spaces, it becomes easier for newbies to network.

“Having a community really helps,” says Arun Krishnan, founder, n! Factorial Analytical Sciences. “You could also talk to several other people about your ideas and come up with something new.”

He says this has happened to him several times. “Moreover, we have four people now,” he adds. “Unless you have 10 or more, paying for an office space doesn’t make sense.”
Tushar Mehta, marketing head of Get My Uni, a search platform for students to
find colleges, echoes these sentiments. “Perhaps, we could manage the rent, but
we couldn’t afford the same sort of infrastructure — a foosball table, for example,” he says.

He also points out that exchanging favours also helps. “If there’s a technical problem we can’t solve, we can ask someone else,” he says. “And after college, when graduates — our consumers — are looking for a job, we could put them in touch with other startups working with us.”

He goes on to say that since there isn’t much books can teach you about running a startup, people with more experience can go a long way in helping you learn.

Mate Labs, which works in the sphere of machine learning, was founded four years ago. The firm had its own office till it participated in a programme for startups earlier this year.
“And for seven months now, we have been working out of 91springboard, a space in Koramangala,” says Rahul Vishwakarma, a co-founder.

To him, the community that you become part of while working from a space like that is more important than the monetary aspect of it.

Apart from startups, small companies and freelancers also choose co-working spaces over keeping their own offices or working from home. Vivek Vijayan, a product management consultant, started working out of Jaaga a couple of years ago, when he was working for a company in London.

“Even before I started consulting independently, we weren’t many working from Bengaluru so a city office didn’t make sense for us,” he adds.

He says he has considered working out of home but would rather not mix the professional and personal. “And when you have a dedicated workspace, it instils discipline,” he adds. 

“This is particulary difficult to achieve at home if you’re living with family.” So, whether it’s for discipline, its pocket-friendly character or networking, co-working spaces are probably here to stay.

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(Published 06 December 2016, 16:29 IST)

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