Sudeep Singh – CEO and ‘chief evangelist’ at GoWork – entered the
co-working space because he felt people in India weren’t doing it the right way. A year on, his brand has 28 clients, and an occupancy of 53 percent between two campuses in Udyog Vihar. “It’s been an interesting journey!” he says of the last 12 months.
The back story (2008 & all that)
I’ve invested in startups and seen my money go up in flames! I used to be an investment banker, lost my job at Merrill Lynch when Lehman Brothers went bankrupt – I was in New York, I saw the bloodbath! It was a very scary scene. I mean, we knew while we were on Wall Street that this is going to tank, but didn’t know when. From there, I moved on – I never wanted to go back to investment banking. I think that left a really sour taste in my mouth.
The learnings
Over the years, I’ve stumbled, made mistakes, lost contracts, won contracts. Even when I came back to India, I didn’t realise the technology world and the
startup world is way different to what it is in the US. So, I had to go back to learning, and through a startup community I met a lot of these startup founders, spoke to them, grew the community, figured out what happens here, (and) how business functions in India.
Finding the right formula
The co-working business model has to be right. I don’t go with the idea of leasing out a space and then sub-letting it (which a lot of people in India are doing). The reason being, if I’m supposed to create a space, I’m creating it for the long term. That’s why I prefer to do a joint venture with building owners – because if they have an interest in the business, I think it’s a long-term association.
Co-working (and the lure of the shared economy)
The total consumption of co-working in India right now is 3.1 million square feet. By 2021, this will increase by 13 million square feet. All the shared economy concepts like Uber and Airbnb have been well received in India by millennials. Today, everybody, especially the millennial crowd, is using Uber and Ola rather than buying their own car, using Airbnb rather than staying in hotels. They are used to this, so why not give them something different, something more exclusive, which is to their taste, but also convenient at a convenient price? That’s the idea.
Slow & steady wins the race
The three key things for me are patience, perseverance and persistence. Everything is slow and steady, we don’t want to just jump into it. I’ve received opportunities where I’ve got really good assets wanting to partner with us, but it’s not the right time because we’re creating a concept. Let me create one concept and once it’s done here, it’ll be easier for me to replicate in other cities. But I think the growth story is here to stay – personally, I have a vision of 15-20 years in co-working.
