8 hacks for finding Startup office space

I started looking for a new office for Komli Engineering at Pune, India about a week back. Here I describe my journey and the final selection.

Here are some of the key points when finding an office of about 2000 sqft in Pune in Aundh/Baner area:

1. Rates have gone up like crazy – average rate is Rs. 50/sqft., unfurnished
2. Most office spaces have only 2 restrooms, which is too few for a 2000 sqft space. So most spaces can pretty much be rejected on that ground
3. There are a large number of residential properties that people are converting into commercial properties for offices and showrooms, and charging Rs. 50 per-sqft!
4. The problem with these residential-turned-commercial properties is that – a) families are living in the same building, b) kids are playing in open spaces and c) parking is mostly an issue.
5. There are independent-bungalows available at very cheap rates. These places are great – they are peaceful, have lots of spaces, lots of parking and so on. BUT you would probably never get broadband in those places. These independent-bungalows are available at 1/3 the rental cost
6. Your office space must be located not more than 3 minutes from 5 places that must sell wada-pav, hot samosas, cut-chai, tandoori chicken and Pizza Hut – else you are doomed, because most employees in a startup are not married, and they need to eat (when they are not writing code)
   
7. The other most important things when you are renting an office space are – 1) the place is good, 2) broadband is feasible and 3) parking space is available. The “broadband” is the most unexpected thing to find out. You can find the best place and the least cost, but no broadband – that will totally blow you off. The second most difficult thing to find is parking space for 4 cars
8. I looked at the most cool places such as a nice place next to McDonalds in Aundh, a really cool office with all glass façade – but not good enough for Komli!

I finally decided with a really nice place above “Kobe Sizzlers” in Aundh. Awesome place, lots of space, central location, 2 balconies and lots of eateries around. And the best part is – you can get Sizzlers on Demand.

Wanna join us - check-out our open positions at http://www.komli.com/careers/ .

Our New Office: Komli Engineering has moved

WE MOVED TO OUR NEW OFFICE TODAY. This office has great location, with many tall trees around, some of which bear fruits; it is primly located with lots of restaurants and chai-taparis around the place, well suited for young and energetic engineers. It is situated right above Cosmos Bank on ITI road in Aundh. [see some photographs here]

We have a 2000 SQUARE FEET TERRACE, which is neatly done with lamps put on the side-walls giving it very plush looks, well suited for Friday evening barbeques and beer bashes [ friends and family invited :-) ].

“THE KOMLI TEAM” is like a family, where we live, work and have fun together. We don’t have walls between our offices; we believe walls inhibit team work.

SETTING UP KOMLI’S NEW OFFICE has been fun and sometimes frustrating. I started with a 19-tasks long action-item list on 1st May just as I returned from my vacation from Manali and Delhi. I picked up the 2 most difficult and most important tasks first – setting up Broadband and AC. Broadband setup – what I thought was one single task bifurcated and trifurcated into a 6-task activity. One guy would put the cable from the office to the terrace and another guy would pull the cable from the terrace to another terrace. The height was when one guy came and told me his only job is to connect the left cable with the right cable; yeah right, I said. But he was right, that’s all he did; he left after that [and I canceled a project-discussion to meet this guy]. All these uncoordinated tasks made a 2 days task stretch into an 8 days task [and then they told me that the broadband access is bound to a single MAC address therefore my switch must fake a MAC address]. AC setup – was more complex than I thought. The installation required a hole 5-inch in diameter to be dug in a concrete wall. They started digging the hole, until they realized that the wall is made up of only concrete and steel-mesh. So, now they have to guess the exact square inside which they can dig a round hole without disrupting the steel-mesh. I was solving this round-hole-in-a-square-mesh problem for the next one hour or so.

THE FIRST DAY was fun; we took off almost without any problems. Getting the network and the AC running at the same time, never felt so good!

I had to order new speakers to listen to our rock collection.


TOMORROW is going to be a long day, window-blinds need to be ordered and installed, one of the toilets is not functioning, gotta push the new application online, interview a few candidates …

WELCOME TO KOMLI! Please keep your hands and feet inside and fasten your seat belts …