Member Experience Can Take The Business Up: Prashant Garg
Our company was founded in 2004 by our founder Elaine Tsung in Hong Kong. I clearly remember it was November 2018 when Garage Society started in India; when I joined hands with Elaine. The big companies like Microsoft, Apple or Infosys started from a garage that's where Elaine thought to open a garage for our clients. We also thought to create a community around; it was never only space. This is the reason Society joined hands with Garage.
How much do you enjoy doing your work personally?
I love it a lot because it's pretty exciting to work in the space which is not 100% a real estate company but it has a tint of hospitality. There have been a lot of competitors in the market these days. "I feel it is more like running a hotel than running a real estate business". I started it alone in 2018 and fortunately, having a team of 40 people now. We have different teams; community, programming, marketing, finance, and procurement team.
What are the major challenges that you have observed in this specific field?
The biggest challenge is competition. On a lighter note, I remember being a broker I used to say; “Gurgaon mei Kahin Pathar maro to Kisi Na Kisi broker pe hi jaakr lagega” now it is more like “Kahin pathar maro to kisi na kisi co working space par hi lagega”. There are many competitors in the market. Competition is a challenge in the market.
A new challenge daily makes life more happening. I thought that building my first space would be the toughest. I thought I just need to make a fantastic space and then I'll get the clients, but then I realized, no there is a step ahead to this. Delivering on time is another challenge that came in, it seems like bringing in clients would be the toughest but we fulfilled that as well. But operating in a sustainable manner is the biggest challenge.
What do you think about how will this emerging trend help an individual?
Co-working is a very successful model. I don't think it’s a bubble or it won't work 2 years down the line. If your product is solid this model is really exciting. Moving into a co-working space helps people a lot;
Dealing with the landlord is painful; it eliminates that.
It brings in so much flexibility in the business.
No need to buy a complete area or office on day zero.
Lesser space and more interaction; we do a lot of community programs, lunch area and more.
The company gets the time to be more focused on business leaving the hospitality and infra part on us.
We had a company that was having a full-fledged office at MG Road. We pitched and tried to convince them to get into our place. It was very tough but then finally they decided to come to start their work in Garage Society. Now they've expanded a lot and they don’t plan to leave this place and they were our very first client.
These are the biggest value adds that any co-working space brings to the table.
What is that one thing that you always keep in mind as a leader?
The one thing which really takes your business up is - member experience. Why people remember Oberoi or Taj because Oberoi is going to be Oberoi forever. This is the level of what we are trying to reach. We have the aspiration to offer good member experience if anyone wants to go anywhere in Garage Society they should be having the same experience.
How has been the progress till now?
We have a mix of all; we have established brands and many startups working with us. We have all set of clients from MNCs, freelancers, individuals, and startups.
This was our first year, I would say we could be one of the only few co-working companies who would be operationally profitable in the first year. We have not been talking about the number of seats but we are more focused to have a very sustainable business.
We have already served more than 70 or 70 + companies those who have been a part of our facilities, there are very few who moved out. “Touchwood I am much happy that I don't have any client who is unhappy. None of the clients came to us and said they are unhappy. We are very fortunate till now”.
What are your plans for 2020-21?
We are now planning ahead of expanding beyond Delhi in other metros. We are about to start our centers in Chennai, Bangalore, Pune, and Mumbai. This shows increasing demand from the members in other cities as well.
We have a very unique program called Garage Cadets. We bring in the pool of interns for our member companies if they have any plan to hire interns we would help them to get interns.“Which company doesn't like interns? To be honest I haven't heard anyone saying no for this”. This program would be a value-add for our members at Garage Society.
