Amravati is a new capital and infrastructure is not here ….provide fully furnished and serviced office spaces so business can set up quickly.
In 2017 Andhra Pradesh innovation society helped 80 companies to kick-start their dream project in the state. And with new upcoming startup-friendly initiatives, they aim to make Andhra Pradesh new startup-hub of India soon.
APIS has already planned to foster 1000+ new startups in 2019 creating an ecosystem to help them grow and succeed. As JA Chowdary, IT advisor to Hon’ble CM of AP speaks in the Mobile Sparks event last year ,’ Since AP is a new state, the market needs newer,innovative and different products for its people and consumers. But we have no capital or infrastructure in that sense, we are a startup state, and to build this startup state we need to bring in innovative companies and help them succeed in Andhra Pradesh ’.
Sounds like a great opportunity, isn’t’ it? But yes as suggested by JA Chowdary above,Andhra Pradesh still lack in providing the basic ecosystem for the onset and growth of any new business such as infrastructure, funding, human capital which is eventually stopping even the homegrown talent.
How Andhra Pradesh can create startup ecosystem?
- 1. Enable a city-wide atmosphere of collaboration and cooperation by building co-working spaces where entrepreneurs can feed off each others energy and ideas.This will improve networking, leading to faster growth and overall success for the
ecosystem. - 2.Incentivize living and working for young people in the cities by providing budget rentalplaces, free wifi, regular cultural events etc.
- 3.Welcome diversity and start city-to-city collaboration for entrepreneurs. This will stophomegrown talent from moving out and will attract more individuals from a widevariety of domains such as financial technology, venture capitalists, fashiontechnology, SaaS etc to come together and innovate. This will also attract fundingfrom investors across the globe resolving the prevailing capital issues.
Why co-working spaces?
Young people are always on the lookout of new spaces to work, live and play. So if I plan on setting up a new startup, as an entrepreneur my priorities would be:
- 1. Choosing a city where daily expenses are less for survival and have a growing startup ecosystem
- 2. Working space which I can rent or where I can sit for long hours at a nominal price
- 3. Networking opportunities with like-minded people
- 4. Exposure to business and networking events
- 5. Availability of basic entrepreneurial needs such as secured wifi, unlimited coffee,creative environment, 24*7 open and easily accessible
- 6. Meet mentors and professionals
Coworking space would fit in these requirements best for any entrepreneur. Especially many
cities in Andhra Pradesh such as it’s de-facto capital Amravati where infrastructure is still not in place, renting a place for new business within budget with startup environment is nearly impossible. Such issues will keep the talent away and even homegrown will choose to move out to a much more happening city such as Bangalore or Chennai. In such situation co-working spaces like iSprout would not only provide you a startup ecosystem within the city but also help you set up your business quickly by providing you with legal and financial consultation.
Today coworking spaces are revolutionizing the way new business works and grow. You can
observe that startups these days are opting to move from traditional set-up to co-working spaces. According to The Art of Co-working report 2017 published by CBRE , there were almost 350 shared office operators in India with the majority of them offering coworking and incubator spaces to start-ups. The diversified culture, mentorship, networking, exceptional support from like-minded entrepreneurs, creative environment, networking events, easy access to startup-community are some of the advantages of working out of a coworking space. There is no reason why a budding entrepreneur would not choose to work from a coworking place where he/she can grow 5x faster.
This is one of the major reason for the increase in number of coworking spaces and incubators in 1,2 tier-cities. With rising real-estate prices, government’s startup innovation societies in cities are shifting their interests to invest and nurture shared spaces to quickly attract more talent in their city or state.
Coworking space is definitely changing the future of work and it’s time we adapt