What Amit Ramani teaches about brand purpose

We should be able to solve the work space issue for people where and when they need it. Right. I think that's been the core of our strategy. Hi Amit. The co-working sector is quite diverse, you know, with several players occupying a certain niche in terms of both product and pricing. How do you differentiate yourself? So Zainia, I think from our standpoint, one, we understood the market really well and we took the product and localized it for India. There are three things that really matter for

people when they're looking for space. One is accessibility. I should get it when I want it. Second was affordability. India is a very value driven market. And the third was no hassle. Right. So I should be able to get a space without any hassles. And clearly from that standpoint, we also focused on the elements of a network. Right. So we wanted to be able to provide a space within a 10 to 15 minute driving radius across the seven metros. So we currently

have close to about 35,000 seats, 70 locations across nine cities, so pretty much a pan India presence. So one was the network effect part of it. Second, our supply side acquisition was very different. So we focused on making sure that the landlord became a partner. Today, 70% of our space is in partnership with the landlord where there's a profit share or a management operator model. Obviously, stretches our capital much further. Also de-risks the business for us. And then finally,

is customer service. Right. So we are very, very focused on the customer part of it. And as a result, we currently in the marketplace have the highest net promoter score in the country. So these are three things that differentiate us from the other players. So this industry has seen a lot of capacity being added in the top net reserve, but is there enough demand? So if you look at the total industry today, about a billion square feet of commercial real estate is tracked. Coworking as of today is

only about 15 million square feet. Right. If I was to look at markets like New York and Singapore, almost 10% of the space is of commercial real estate is under coworking. And currently, we are sitting at 1.5% in India. I think we are just at the ground floor of the opportunity that the skyscraper to be built. And we feel that in the next four to five years, this market will at least become 150, 200 million square feet of about 1.3 or 1.4 billion of total commercial real estate. So I think

the demand, when it comes to a demand part of it, clearly people have understood that this is something where they can stretch their capital. They don't need to invest in real estate, which is not their core business. The real estate market is currently in a slump. What does that mean for coworking companies? So real estate, when it comes to commercial real estate, actually has done the best out of the sector. So when it comes to coworking also, because the overall commercial real estate has

been fairly robust, we have done really well. Now, even if there was a bit of a slowdown, in the commercial real estate, we feel because of the flexible model, because of capital being converted into an operating expense for a company, because the ubiquitous nature of availability when and where you need it, I think people will adopt more and more because this is the core why people want to move away from owning their own space. How do you see this space evolving and what are some

allied business models that companies in this space should be explored in? So I think from at least the way we look at it is that we should be able to solve the work space issue for people where and when they need it, right? I think that's been the core of our strategy. And to that effect, we have our own office coworking centers. We have a pan-India presence, as I mentioned earlier. We have our mobility solutions. So if you need a meeting room or you need a flexi desk for an hour or let's say a day that's available to you on the go,

we have now started doing what we call as office exclusives. So these are centers which are built for specific customers and they're dedicated to those customers. And then finally, we are also now managing spaces for other people that have already have their own workspace. Now in terms of other allied, there are obviously solutions such as co-living, there are solutions such as, you know, student housing, there's certain hospitality solutions that are coming up. We personally feel that we have a strength in

work and providing a workspace and that's where we want to focus our energies on. So co-working is traditionally associated with startups. How would you attract legacy businesses? So surprisingly enough, when we started the business, obviously our hypothesis was that co-working in India would work really well for SMEs and corporates. Because if you look at the market today, out of the total 50 million white-collar workers, only about a million and a half are freelancers and startups. So we strongly believed from day one

that SMEs and corporates will become the core of our business. Today, 50% of our business comes from SMEs, almost about 35% comes from corporate. So we have already mapped large corporates and large SMEs into our platform. And we feel that this journey will continue because that is a need that is in the market. And specifically for SMEs that were not able to afford a quality infra at a price and were not able to find it where they needed it, we are solving that need. So we feel that clearly by having the

affordability at our core, having the accessibility, which means available when they need it, and the transparency of our solution, where on an app you can find out what the cost of a seat would be. I think these SMEs and corporates are adopting it really well in the marketplace today. With the WeWork IPO falling flat, how does it reflect on the category? So obviously, it's a sunrise sector, there are bound to be some blips, clearly. But I think overall, if we look at the demand side of the ecosystem, which makes any business successful, I think the

demand is endless in India. I mean, if you look at all across India, the total commercial real estate is about a billion just in New York City, the total commercial real estate under management is half a billion square feet. So I think as urbanization increases, as people start moving from rural areas to tier three, tier three to two, and two to one metros, clearly, we feel that the urbanization will increase the commercial requirements in this country. I think clearly from our standpoint,

we believe that we have built a strong business that is well capitalized. We make money at a company level today, so we are profitable. And I think if we build a business on core first principles, then those things are what makes a business work. I think some of these, you know, events across the world will happen. But I think India's core industry has built its own core, and I think we'll continue to build on that success.