In a Crowded Coworking Space 'Smartworks' is Working Hard to be Number One
Neetish Sarda and Saumya Sarda grew up in a Kolkata based real estate family. Real estate is in their veins. Neetish said about setting up a coworking space in his home city, “Kolkata is a slow, relaxed city. Business centres don’t really fly off the shelf like Delhi. When one of our first co-working spaces in Kolkata was soon filled up by clients, we knew we had a successful business on our hands. If Smartworks had demand in Kolkata, it will have demand anywhere.”
There’s nothing new about the co-working idea. But Smartworks is giving it a new twist by sitting at the juxtaposition of a Regus business centre that large MNCs and corporations would like to work out of and an Innov8 preferred by many a startup founder.
The core purpose of Smartworks
The core of the entire concept was to build and nurture a product that was easy to set up, fully customizable and future ready. A critical aspect considered was to move beyond the mundane offerings of conventional business centres and co-working spaces. The aim has always been to build completely serviced and customizable offices that are complemented by thriving communities that encourage collaboration and networking within the Smartworks universe.
From its inception in December 2015 when they had zero square feet, Smartworks has grown to offer over 550,000 square feet of state-of-the-art serviced office space. The team is aiming to lease at least 1.2 million square feet by the end of 2017 fiscal which includes going into Tier 2s as well.
About SmartVenture
Smartworks is playing smart and trying to work with as many freelancers, startups, small teams, and large corporations with lean teams – the whole eclectic bunch of workers in the universe.
Neetish is doing all he can to create as many client allies, “We understand how our customers need to cut corners to build a successful business. This is why we’ve introduced the SmartVenture program. This program helps entrepreneurs focus just on their business during the initial six-month incubation period, while not worrying about the operational bits. We do this by offering, phased pricing and equity sharing. “We have customers who want to use our workspace and services, but can’t afford it as yet. If they’re ready to offer us a nominal equity in their business, we would love to see their business grow within our premises,” Neetish said.
The horizon promises bounty
“Total leasing volume of co-working spaces in India was 1.2 million square feet in 2016, it is estimated to be around 10 million square feet by 2020. There are close to 5,000 startups in the country at present, the number is estimated to be around 12,000 by the year 2020.
All these new startups would be eyeing flexible serviced office spaces for the convenience that they offer. We are on track to be key player in the field,” Neetish said.
No reason Smartworks won’t be one of the leading providers of co-working spaces within that horizon.
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