After Hike, Freecharge and Lookup prove that the way to an employee’s heart is through cool office spaces!

(LookUp's Bangalore office)

Just last week, Kavin Mittal unveiled Hike Messenger’s new office which looked straight out of your dream and less like an office and more like a vacation.

Mittal was of the strong belief that a modern workplace should ditch the traditional outlines of a office and reflect all that the company stood for- creativity, fun and work.

He further added that the right environment makes as much difference as the right kind of people.

And, looks like he’s not alone. More and more startups are ditching their boring offices and redesigning their office spaces to reflect what they stand for.

Expect lots of posters, more inspirational and funny quotes, comfortable lounge seating, minimalistic design and bright colours.

(FreeChai from FreeCharge)
For instance, FreeCharge, the digital payment platform and wallet player founded by Kunal Shah and Sandeep Tandon has ensured that its office design resonates the company’s ideology of collaboration and conversations, leading to great innovation.

Every inch of the 22,115 sq, ft office area is designed by graffiti artists and comprises 187 workstations, 5 meeting rooms, a cafeteria, board room, two hanging seating units, informal couch settings, relaxo units and so much more.

(A relaxo unit at the FreeCharge office)

Each meeting room bears a water colour painting of personalities like cricketer Rahul Dravid, author and poet Rabindranath Tagore, the legend of music A.R. Rahman, the late Dr APJ Kalam and JRD Tata. These inspirational figures stand for leadership, triumph, resilience, and have had humble beginnings which are in line with the core values of FreeCharge, thus making it a perfect blend.

(LookUp's office is comfort redefined)

On the other hand, LookUp, a personal assistant app that lets you directly chat with local stores to order food, buy groceries, make reservations and ensure home delivery at the drop of a text has designed its Bangalore office to to cater to the requirement of flexible and open workspaces for a young and dynamic team.

(What a lovely place to work!)

According to Deepak Ravindran, CEO and Founder of LookUp, the vision was to design a space that was minimal yet confident and most importantly, efficient.

(A look at the cute telephone boots for Skype calls at LookUp's office)
Thus, the 5,000 sq feet of space encompasses standing desks, tables you can write on, cosy cubicles, indigenous plant species to improve air quality and differentiate, cluster of bright red old-school telephone booths for those Skype calls and last, but not the least- an amphitheater, which acts as a brainstorming arena by day and doubles up as a recreational hub by night.