Why Co-Working Spaces Are Beneficial For Start-ups According to Innov8 founder and CEO, Dr Ritesh Malik, co-working has made the most amazing impact on start-ups as with co-working spaces one just needs to plug and play.
By Shreya Ganguly •
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Co-working is increasingly gaining popularity from not only start-ups but also from big corporations as it is a cost-effective alternative to building or hiring an office. According to a June 2019 report by JLL and FICCI, the co-working market share in office leasing in the top seven cities of India increased from 8 per cent in 2018 to 12 per cent in Q1 2019. The report also states that Mumbai had the highest proportion, 14 per cent, of co-working space to total office leasing in 2018.
While speaking to Entrepreneur India during the Startup Summit 2019 organised by Franchise India, OYO-owned Innov8 founder and CEO, Dr Ritesh Malik, said, "Co-working had made the most amazing impact on start-ups. With co-working spaces, you need to just plug and play."
Related Story: Why Co-Working 'Works' for Start-Ups
According to Malik, Innov8 focuses on letting the start-ups focus on their products and discourages them from putting capital into things like furniture which is a depreciating asset.
Speaking about the innovation in the co-working space, Malik said, "We have not even scratched the surface of the co-working industry. We are not even at 1 or 1.2 per cent of their entire office uptake. In my personal guess, this will be at least 90 per cent by 2040 because this makes business sense."
He also went on to say that there is no competition in the market because all the founders and other stakeholders are teaching each other about the market. He also said that all the founders of co-working start-ups have a WhatsApp group to share their ideas and they also make sure to meet regularly.
