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Remember ‘<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=The+Social+Network&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">The Social Network</a>’? 
 
In the film, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Mark+Zuckerberg&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Mark Zuckerberg</a> and his pals rent a place in the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Bay+Area&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Bay Area</a> during their college vacation to work on Mark’s own pet project – <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Facebook&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Facebook</a>. 
 
While the idea of co-working is picking up India, no one’s yet heard of organized co-living. Not anymore. 
 India is set have its first ever organized <keyword id="3505773" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="co-living-space">co-living space</keyword> in Connaught Place. Meet <keyword id="201692" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Himanshu-Bindal">Himanshu Bindal</keyword>, the co-founder of One Internet. Bindal is looking to expand his <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=co-working&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">co-working</a> hubs beyond cafes and office spaces into living spaces, and soon. 
 
Hotels in any city often have 20-40% free inventory round the year. Over the next 6 months, Bindal’s team will join hands with budget and premier hotels around their Connaught Place centre and get them onboard. The catch - they’ll typically need a minimum commitment of 15 days to a month from you. 
 
“Entire sections will be transformed into co-living spaces. Startups can work out of our centre, and live 10 buildings down the street. It’ll be a room with 2 beds on sharing basis. We’ll throw in food and ther services as well”, Bindal said. 
 
Monthly fees would be anything between Rs. 30-35k a month, while the daily rate is tentatively fixed at a costlier 2.5k. 
 
Going forward, Bindal is planning to expand his services into incubation as well. “One Cubate will be our own incubation programme. We’ll accept applications for our first batch from October this year. We’ll charge 6-7% equity for the knowledge, including funding.” he said. 
 
Bindal reveals he’s also working on an ‘Exchange Club’, a service where VCs can offer to sponsor startup seats in exchange of equity. The tentative rate is Rs. 5-10 lakhs against 3-4% equity. VCs can also offer to exchange equity against mentoring sessions. 
 
The good news is that while India is still waiting for its Apple or Google, when we have our very own Steve Jobs, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, they’ll have a fun story to tell, one where the lingering smell in their first office was of room freshner and not bike grease. 
 
<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d9/View_of_Connaught_Place_at_Night.JPG">Image Source</a>

India will soon have its first
ever co-living space in Connaught Place, New Delhi

It was a hot afternoon in Delhi’s <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Connaught+Place&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Connaught Place</a>. The last flight of stairs led me to <keyword id="3148540" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="40" keywordseo="FLYPMTV">Flyp@MTV</keyword>. 
 
A well-known café among the city’s party crowd, they now have a separate section for <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=co-working&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">co-working</a>. 
 
I walk up to a young couple huddled in a corner. They’re a budding design and marketing firm called Enqodle. “We’ve been in the industry since the last 5 years. This is our Business Centre. The back-end team sits out of Janakpuri. We worked out of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Starbucks&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Starbucks</a> for a while, but how long can you sit! Beyond 3 hours, you have to order something”, co-founder Kapil Gupta says. 
 Places like <keyword id="2593251" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="40" keywordseo="Social-Offline">Social Offline</keyword> and Flyp@MTV were regular cafes with upto 50% seats lying unused during the day. Now these cafe-cum-coworking hubs transform into full-blown bars only post 6 pm. Till then, you can work out of here for a fee of 5,000 bucks a month. 
 
For that you get quite a lot, mind. Unlimited free tea/coffee, free web hosting, some discount vouchers, IT support and 15% discount on legal services. Throw in some free mentorship and networking sessions, and even the hustler generation can’t bargain for more. Did we mention the monthly fee is redeemable on food and drinks? 
 
Yeah, that. 
 
Kapil’s co-founder Swati accepts there are some challenges. “Getting our parents to understand we’re working out of a cafe is a task. The general perception of a café is that it’s pure chaos. It only gets a bit loud post 6 pm”, she smiles. 
 Most don’t seem to mind the music. <keyword id="3260254" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="One-Internet">One Internet</keyword> co-founder <keyword id="201692" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Himanshu-Bindal">Himanshu Bindal</keyword> says this is maximum bang for the buck. “A <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Starbucks&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Starbucks</a> coffee costs Rs. 300, and you can sit for up to 4 hours. At One Internet co-working, you pay Rs. 350 a day (via monthly plan) for better internet, 24*7 access and a full-fledged office”, he argues. 
 Even in <keyword id="3506414" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="co-working-cafes">co-working cafes</keyword> like MTV Flyp, you can walk in and pay Rs. 450 for a day. Have anything from the menu and you can redeem that amount as well. 
 
Next up, a three member team peering at their Macbook screens. They’re part of the India edition of Singapore-based Techseen. “We are the first team to work out of here. It’s been about 3 months now. Most offices today are shifting out of Delhi into Gurgaon and Noida. If they can offer space for 8-10 people, we’d love to sit out of here even as we expand”, Assistant Editor Abhinav Mohapatra says. 
 
My last catch is an unlikely startup pair. Delhiite Rahul Kakkad and his Pune-based Aeronautical engineer co-founder. The duo happened to live in the same apartment complex, and decided to partner for an alcoholic beverages information portal. How convenient to work out of a bar-cum-cafe. 
 
“We come by noon, and leave by six. A typical office space makes little sense for us. We meet new people every day. Also, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Starbucks&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Starbucks</a> doesn’t have a smoking area”, Kakkad smiles. 
 
Being in a central location, the only downside is high real-estate costs. After all, it's the rentals that decide the economics. Bindal says he’s making good money. This is after paying Rs. 6 lacs as rent. “We broke even in the first 3 months. We’re investing heavily on resources now. In this business, profitability depends on how many centres you have. We’re planning to launches centres in Gurgaon and Noida soon”, he says. 
 
His company is also planning to have co-working centres in Bengaluru (Koramangala/LSR Layout/Indiranagar) and Mumbai (Andheri/Juhu) in the next two months. 
 
As evening fell, the live band started jamming. Bass shook the floor. I knew it was time to get out. The bustling co-working crowd seemed at ease though, puffing their hookahs and gorging spicy kebabs. 
 
There’s no stopping this ‘work hard, party hard’ generation. After all, why leave work for party when you can work where the party is.

You Searched For "Himanshu Bindal" and got 2 results

India will soon have its first ever co-living space in Connaught Place, New Delhi

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Delhi’s Cafes are turning into work-spaces for India’s Startup hustlers

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