Background:
Real Estate in India is in bad shape. This downfall has created an amazing opportunity for those who’d like to look beyond the traditional ways of monetizing land and property. For the first time in human history, we have all the ingredients: lot of vacant or underutilized space, ubiquitous technology, and most importantly, open-minded people who put experience over ownership. The concoction of these has the potential to create shared spaces for everyone to work, study and play, to collaborate and create, to hangout or just take a break.
The Problem:
- Massive amount of vacant commercial space with no takers due to high cost and long commitment.
- Lack of affordable spaces with zero commitment for individuals and small groups to work, study or play.
Our Two-Pronged Solution – Nwook:
A) Create shared work, study and play spaces by collaborating with owners of commercial property and provide a complete solution to set up and run the spaces. Also, tie up with existing spaces to sell their excess inventory while automating operations.
Short video explaining the proposition:
B) Provide seats at affordable hourly rates while charging by the minute, offer packages to those who would like to use a space on a frequent or regular basis, and sell meeting rooms with a 15-minute commitment.
Short video explaining the proposition:
How We Do It:
1) We tie up with property owners with a dedicated vacant space of at least 1000 Square Feet. We ensure that the property:
- Can be used for a commercial purpose
- Is well-located
- Is accessible by public transport
- Has parking space nearby
2) We set-up the space as a shared work space, study space or a combination of both, depending on the property layout and the location. We also bring in relevant vendors and manage the logistics till the space is ready.
3) We provide a Point of Sale (POS) system that takes care of bookings, user-verification, time-tracking and invoicing.
4) We hire and train a space manager who operates the POS and manages daily operations, including cash collection.
5) We take care of marketing, sales and the entire customer lifecycle. The owner bears the set-up cost as well as the overheads.
What We Offer:
- Study seats starting at ₹30/hour – no internet and beverages.
- Work seats starting at ₹50/hour – fast Wi-Fi and 1 beverage (tea/coffee) per hour.
- Meeting rooms – both work and study.
- Spaces for small events, meet-ups and pop-ups – only on availability.
- We plan to add play spaces for kids, teenagers and adults in the near future.
You pay for what you get:
We want our customers to pay only for what they get. Thus we charge only for the time one spends at our premises, on a prorated basis. You pay for the full hour only if you redeem a beverage included in the hourly rate, else you pay by the minute.
What about safety:
To ensure safety of all our stakeholders- owners, managers and users, we have made it compulsory for users to upload a valid ID as part of the registration process. We approve or reject an ID after a manual check after which a user’s account is activated. Also, one has to produce the ID before accessing a space as this is a mandate for all space providers.
Conclusion:
Collaboration has the power to break all barriers and create amazing opportunities and savings for everybody. And with such amazing opportunities and savings, there will be more resources than ever to help the marginalized or provide for the underprivileged.
Getting there is certainly not going to be easy but is definitely worth a try. We have taken a leap of faith and after 14 months of metamorphosis, launched Nwook in Calcutta. Do have a look at nwook.com and feel free to throw in queries and suggestions. Looking forward to genuine feedback.
If you’d like to collaborate, associate, share your thoughts or just rant, do leave a comment!