Bengaluru has been the home for successful companies such as Ola, Flipkart, Redbus and many more establishments that were once start-ups. Joining the start-up bandwagon are Karan Bahadur and Shashikaran Rao, co-founders of Construkt start-up hostels, who have opened them exclusively for travelling entrepreneurs and techies.
In 2015, Construkt found out that there were about 18,000 room requirements per year in a survey conducted with 2,000 tech start-ups. This information drove the co-founders to begin this first-of-its- kind hostel. The hostel is 3,500 sq. ft renovated bungalow with bedrooms, shared bathrooms, living area and self-catered kitchen, situated in Indiranagar.
“We were looking for a place that had a ‘home’ feel to it. We wanted it to be trendy and colourful yet cozy. After two-and-a-half months of property search, we found this house and it fit into our requirements perfectly. It had a lot of natural light and the elevation was good. Indiranagar, Koramangala and HSR Layout have the most number of start-up companies in Bengaluru and we chose Indiranagar because it is accessible and well connected,” said Karan Bahadur.
“In a research done earlier, we found out that Indiranagar has the most number of start-ups in the whole of Asia. It made sense to open the hostel in the area. The place was previously an architect’s house; it is very beautifully built and Karan, our co-founder, loved it,” said Elizabeth Riya Roy, the Community Manager of Construkt. The one-month- and-a- half old hostel has already attracted over 50 clients.
AmbienceThe rooms in the hostel are large and spacious; filled with natural light; and painted in white and orange, which are Construkt’s colours. The ambience of the place is simple yet elegant. “All our furniture is customised by a start-up called UBYLD. They are known for upcycling wood and making furniture. Our team also picked up second-hand furniture from a place called NGES. We picked up stools and then customised them for our needs,” said Elizabeth about the furniture of the hostel.
There are low-seating furniture everywhere in the hostel except for the dining area. The living area has a television set. A bathtub has been creatively converted into a couch. There are a lot of movable stools made of tyres. “This sort of furniture cuts costs, but still looks good and serves the purpose. We wanted a simple, clean space and we tried to make it as environment friendly as possible.”
Inspirational quotes and pictures of famous personalities are hung on the walls to motivate the ‘hackpackers’ in the house.
Krish Elakara, an entrepreneur who has been visiting the city to set up his start-up Juzt Now, said that “All sorts of entrepreneurs come to this place; some are really established, some are in the beginning stage. We have the chance to interact and talk about all sorts of topics: philosophy, economics, sustainability etc. It’s very different from any other place I’ve stayed in.”
Asked about opening branches of Construkt start-up hostels, Karan Bahadur said, “We have had an overwhelming response. We have been thinking about starting branches in Goa, Hyderabad, Chennai, and NCR as they are blooming start-up centres.”
