Reliance World is doing a soft launch of ‘Instant Offices’ – a scheme to provide office rental space and infrastructure to startups and Small & medium Enterprises (SMEs).
Setting up a startup office in major Indian cities can be challenging, especially in this economy. Not only are the rental prices in major Indian cities very high, setting up the infrastructure can be a big overhead. Add to that any bureaucratic delays and it could mean major headache for any startup and SME company.
Wouldnt it be great if startups could have an infrastructure ready, on-demand office space that they can use ? That way, they can focus their energy on their core offering as opposed to worrying about rentals, furniture, infrastructure etc.
Well, Reliance World is rolling out this new scheme called Instant Offices. You can avail any of their different ‘offices’ with ready to go infrastructure and no long term commitments. No upfront security deposits required. You can use by the hour, by the day or by the month.
They offer 5 different categories of offices:
1) Single Seater with 30 sq. ft area and workstation
2) Single Seater cabin (54 sq ft.) with 2 facing chairs. (limited availability)
3) Nine seater conference room with 185 Sq. ft
4) 22 Seater conference room with 500 sq. ft (limited availability)
5) Individual workstation areas
You can view the entire details in their presentation here (PPT file).
The rates provided in the presentation are applicable to the top cities only and rates for 2nd tier, 3rd tier cities are much lower. Also, you get 10% off when you sign up for 3 months or more.
And Reliance World is providing an exclusive additional 5% discount to Startup Dunia readers.
If you are interested in finding out more, feel free to drop me an email at contact [AT] startupdunia.com and I shall pass on their contact details.
Looks to expensive for SMEs to afford.
It depend upon the Requirements, If we look into Total prospective for owning 100 sft space one has to pay for 30osft, where as we are charging only the area which is practically being used, and for Eg. A church gate area the rentals at that to the tune of 230-250/sft where as we are not considering and the next aspect is availability, So it all depends on Which space we are comparing, For eg space at Taloja may cost much much lesser than at Church gate but the locality what we are planning into should also be considered.
I don’t think it will be very successful (at least for small duration) because these days everyone has good Internet connectivity in their homes and they can work from home.
But the home connections doent match the speeds of our Broad band connection, what is being offered at Reliance.
working from home is not tht good for forming an organisational base!
TOO EXPANSIVE, NO START CAN AFFORD IT, IF ITS REDUCED TO 50% WE WOULD STILL THINK OF AFFORDING IT.
I have used Reliance World’s facility at Cochin during 2007′s. At that time, i was also thinking that with such an integrated facilities (Video Conferencing + Reprography + Cafetaria + A/C + UPS + Toilet + MIneral water), one can use Reliance World as an office. In fact, i could observe that few of the patrons were coming Reliance World daily for stock market trading. And also some organizations were using Reliance World for online training for their marketing/sales staff.
If startups still want to conserve money, they can do their development work elsewhere & use Reliance world for Communication(esp. video conferencing) purpose only. Also Reliance World has prepaid options (like Rs.30/- per hour for browsing) which some very early stage startups may find it helpful. With one login account, one can use around 240 centres in 100+ cities.
For technology/internet entrepreneurs, one can have first hand experience of how people of different age groups are using internet. I observed that kids are using Reliance World for gaming with their friends during holidays.
I feel that if Reliance World can offer facilities similar to Post Box facility, this will be much more helpful for other entrepreneurs also apart from tech entrepreneurs.
The PC for Browsing is useful if only for browsing, where as the startups need much more things apart from browsing,The Pc positioned doent support this.Post Box facility is being offered at Reliance as a part of this offer where in the customer can use Reliance world address as communication address.
Rs. 11, 000 is expensive for single seater.
I am rather conformable in my 6 room-900 sq. ft home at peanuts cost and be myself rather than trying to show myself as some upmarket solo startup in 30 ft cramped workstation.
I think that “scheme” is targeted towards newbies who think that their success depends upon how upmarket their address is. Of course, you may need an upmarket address once you have gained critical mass. I have seen many so-called “entrepreneurs” who blow away their parents hard-earned money on expensive premises and finally close within few months without sales and cash-flow.
I come from a middle-class background and am a first-generation entrepreneur. Even I made some mistakes when I started my first thing. It did flop, but not without teaching me some lessons. My next few things(I would not call it enterprise as its a very big word) that I started consumed less than Rs. 50,000 in initial investment apart from my time and efforts.
Dear Rohan,
I myself owned a startup till few years back now I am not associated with it my friends have taken this and made big. But my experiences are quiet different from yours( Not that i am writing on behalf of Reliance). We suffered because no body funded our venture as we were operating from Our place. Infact if you compare even taking a 2 room apartment instead of cabin space, the costs works much more as there is lot of Capex involved, For eg. If you are operating from remote part in Navi Mumbai also there is 2month brokerage and 10 months advance on this, apart from building societies objections and restrictions , Broad band Internet connection furniture etc. And if the venture doesnt work out all you will loose in case you want to close after 3 months is 3 months rent whereas if you operate from any other space the Capex is lost.Lot of Work has been put in and views of all sections have been taken before we ventured into it,.Only difference is Your experience is different
Dear Srinivas,
Could you please tell about the timing ?. I think a standard Reliance World operates from 10 AM to 10 PM. Will not this be a disadvantage ?
Dear Mr. Santhanam,
We operate from 9.30 am onwards, But there are centres which are being used by call centres which are 24×7, We have got 24×7 license. So the timings of usgae are depemdent on customer, If the customer wants night timings escepialy for the people dealing with US Clients, the store timings can be customised accordingly.
Hi Srinivas,
Thanks for sharing your experience. Right now,, mine is a b2b thing, rather a b2c thing. May be thats the reason my address does not matter. Also, I think I should have told you that I personally know many of the influential people in the field. Pehaps they don’t ask my address because they know me well.
are we allowed to download and install software on these PC’s.. If the PC is used by multiple people …. is the file security assured.
I am much better off working at home than exposing myself to this unsafe environment.
Btw, All great startups including google, HP, Infosys started from their homes/garage.
Dear Mr. A,
Our backend is totally unsafe whith lot of protections, You done have to think of Safety, We practise one of the best security systems as far as our net work is concerned, and we are totally cyber law compiliant. For details of security, You can contact us . And as far operating from home/else it depends on individual startup .
Sorry, Tthere is mistake in typing pl read it as totally safe error regretted
I am looking for a office space in Mumbai. Seating capacity should be 10 minimum. Pls contact on 9323131523 / 022-22916217 — Imtiaz Khan
Too expensive.. In that much cost i can rent an good office.