Office Space for your Startup

It has been exactly one month since my last post. And despite my commitment to write at least once a week, I had to make an exception for the last 4 weeks because I was busy getting our new digs ready. Our new office space (the landlord gave us just the building shell – finishing it up was our responsibility) not only took a month to get ready, it also meant that we didn’t have a proper space to work out of for a month. Now thats a killer for any startup, particularly one with an operations group, dealing with live customer transactions on a daily basis. I thought our Operations team did a commendable job of handling our business for the month we were in a temporary space, especially given all the crazy Hyderabadi rains that seemed to find just the right time to show up. Thank you dear customers for bearing with us during this challenging time, you were certainly very patient and understanding.

Now, how we got into such a mess is a topic worthy of a lengthy discussion but I would be digressing…what this really got me thinking about was the key criteria for startup office space, how you decide etc.

Firstly, you obviously want the space to be cheap – that is true for all startups, funded or otherwise. Beyond that, all the other criteria depend on the size, nature and type of startup, so I will just stick to our experience. Ours is a consumer facing startup, and brand visibility is paramount. We are now bang opposite Cyber Towers, one of Hyderabad’s most prominent landmarks and the fact that we can prominently display our name in such prime real estate adds incredible ad value. Lots and lots of eyeballs, and hopefully at least some of those will translate to site visits and so on. The next key aspect for us was phone and broadband availability – network strength, coverage etc. Those two are mission-critical elements for us and if either of them is down, then the business suffers greatly. And unfortunately, despite all the data that indicates otherwise, you still can’t take either of these for granted in Hyderabad, even in an area like Hi-Tec city. Sad, but true! So we have backup options, but that adds to the cost, and that hurts. Then there is availability of power, which is just as critical. If you don’t want to (or can’t afford to yet) burn money on a UPS system, then you better make sure the power supply is pretty reliable. Of course, no one could get away from the nasty power cuts for hours together last month but generally, this seems to be less of an issue on our side of town. And then there is parking – obviously an extremely premium feature, especially if you want to be on any major roadway. If you have more than a few employees that drive their motorbikes and cars to work, then you better pay attention to this and have a solution in place. You could mitigate some of that by picking a terrific, central location – encourage them to ride the bus or the metro. Not only is it cheaper, it is also pro-environment. Central locations typically also come with plenty of eateries, chai addas etc, and your employees will most certainly need those. Finally, do some basic surveys of the locality, the surrounding environment, challenges that other companies in the neighborhood face etc and be sure that those are ones you can handle or live with.

Thats on the outside, which I think is harder in some sense. On the inside, more than anything, you want the place to be clean, functionally well-designed and something your employees will enjoy spending the bulk of their day (and night?) in. If you need to invite a partner or a customer over, you obviously don’t want to be uncomfortable having them over. Space constraints depend on your size/staff but some key things to think about are clean restroom(s), a pantry/lunch room with some basic amenities, sufficient power points, phone/LAN outlets (Wirless is the way to go if you are a true tech outfit, everyone has laptops etc but if you are like us and have older systems for the non-technical staff, then wireless can get expensive), plenty of light (the more the natural light, the less you’ll spend on lights and power) and ventilation – nothing unique about these requirements but one tends to compromise on these in the interests of keeping costs low. You dont want to be Penny wise, pound foolish. Startup needs tend to expand quickly and you’ll want to accomodate those without having to move again, so think a little longer term while still worrying about your budget. And not to be fancy, but try and accomodate a meeting room in your plan if at all possible – as you grow, you’ll need to be on conference calls with partners, customers, investors, internal team etc and a separate room can be a blessing, especially if you don’t have offices/cabins. Make a list of core requirements and nice-to-haves clearly separated out, plan your budget well (and please be realistic – if you are in Hyderabad, simply double your budget and start again) and check out at least a handful of options before deciding. Not only will that give you a pulse on whats out there, it will also help you think about stuff that you hadn’t earlier. Finally, make sure your space is in a commercial building (and not operating in a residential one – such an arrangement is cheaper but also illegal and can quickly get you in trouble).  Visit a few other startups and talk to them to see what traps they fell into.  If you are in Pune, Mukul’s tips at might be helpful.