What’s the one common thing most startups and freelancers are on the lookout for? Funding, inspiration or mentorship? Probably. But there’s something that drives them even more to find affordable solutions — office space. Working out of cafes and homes is all okay, but when it comes to setting up meetings and finding like-minded individuals to brainstorm with nothing cuts it like an office space. And while we’re at it, let’s make it affordable and snazzy too. Given the high realty rates, renting exclusive office spaces plus overheads isn’t something a startup particularly wants to be bothered with. In Chennai, which is home to some of the country’s fastest growing startups the need for affordable work spaces is a natural extension. That is where coworking spaces step in. While the city has already seen several spring up over the last few years across neighbourhoods there’s always room for more. Here are a few newer ones worth checking out if you’re on the hunt for a space to work out of.
IShareSpace, Nungambakkam
Chennai, 07/11/2017 : The new co-working space "ISharespace" at Ispahani Centre in Nungambakkam, chennai. Photo : S. R. Raghunathan
One of the newest entrants in the segment in the city, IShareSpace already has a presence in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Gurugram. Launched in May 2017 and having set up full fledged operations since June, this 146-seater office space is described as a new-age business centre by its co-founder Priyanka Krishnan. “The idea was the make the space a hybrid between a coworking space and business centre to suit a variety of business needs. While it is slightly more formal than a coworking space, it is definitely not as restrictive as a business centre. Design has been key here and we’ve used a lot of glass to lend the space a sense of openness,” she says, adding, “We also let clients customise the space to suit their needs. For instance, if someone wants more privacy we can offer that, or want walls taken down we can do that too. Want to change the interiors a bit? Doable.”
From freelancers, startups, established offices setting up branches in the city to MNCs looking to set up satellite centres, iShareSpace counts them all in their client list. While the facility is open from 8am to 8pm, they are flexible to staying open 24x7 based on client needs for an additional charge. Apart from offering office space and desks, iShareSpace also has tie-ups with chartered accountants and website developers among others to extend their portfolio of services.
Features: High speed internet, complimentary tea and coffee, round the clock security and limited number of meeting room hours per month.
AtWorks, T Nagar
dsg
Though this brand has been around for a couple of years now, AtWorks is rapidly expanding its centres with the latest one opening in T Nagar this month and Kilpauk a while before that. Their first centre was back in 2014 on OMR and ever since there has been no looking back. Today, they have a presence in OMR, Alwarpet, Nungambakkam, Kilpauk and T Nagar; and plans are afoot to set up their next centre in Anna Nagar by January 2018. “The idea is to evolve and enable opportunities in as many neighbourhoods as possible; help people work out of their neighbourhoods itself,” says Ashwin Shankar, who co-founded AtWorks along with his brother Shravan. He adds that their focus has been on providing a value for money experience to startups and freelancers looking to rent a desk. So they’re pretty nominally priced at Rs 6,000 plus tax per person per month and also offer per day plans for people who need more flexible plans. “We’re in the process of setting up a wallet system for people who are on the move and would like to work out of one of our other centres depending on their schedule,” says Ashwin, adding, “We do however, like to go beyond being just a coworking space and create an ecosystem of sorts for startups and entrepreneurs. We try and create learning opportunities for them, so when GST was implemented we had a GST Clinic, then there are sessions on digital marketing tactics. The idea is that people are not just renting a table and chair, but are instead joining a community. We make it a point to host events almost every two weeks. These are designed and focussed on members sharing issues they face and facilitate interactions.”
Features: A coworking space that supports services and goes beyond being just a workspace. Has a hyperlocal approach in terms of presence.
HideOut, Aminjikarai
gj
This one describes itself as a cross-culture working studio and not just another coworking space. According to its CEO Mohd Shaik Hameed, “HideOut offers a new way of working with the mantra ‘Connect, explore, collaborate. Our aim is to create an ideal environment for the creative. Every member forms a collective and we focus on process and product. We even have an in-house prototyping and visualising team which helps people in the process of ideation and production.”
Launched in June 2017, HideOut, says Hameed was launched when the team noticed a gap in the collaborative working space in the city. “We, the five co-founders of the initiative, found our skills complementing each other and decided to launch a space that can bring together creative minds and take forward their ideas.” The space currently features a working studio that can accommodate up to 20 people, a private office for 10+10 members and a make space that can accommodate another 20 members. Priced affordable at Rs 4275 monthly and Rs 1275 weekly (including taxes) the space offers users a range of features from reprography, access to power tools in the maker space, virtual office, startup guidance, visualising and prototyping guidance, voice recording, camera, projection system and entry to weekly events and workshops apart from community access on social media. They also offer access to HideOut’s book vault, which is open to members who can take books by replacing them with some of their own.
For members looking to host events, the space is open for no charge as long as the event itself is free. Some of the events they’ve hosted so far have ranged from open discussions on various social and economic happenings, workshops on sustainable development goals, internet of things, introduction to yoga and healthy living to partnerships and legal advice by professionals.
Features: Apart from the regular features of a coworking space also offers visualising and prototyping guidance, virtual office and a unique book vault.
