Importance of Co-working for Startups

In recent years, with the onset of web technologies, the notion of setting up one’s own company glides through most young minds since entrepreneurship is now feasible, with less initial investments and meager workforces. Most online businesses start with almost zero investments; the only major expenses being computers and internet connections. Entrepreneurs, who start this small, usually go amiss and end-up moonwalking; but a few fluky ones manage to get a modest and consistent income and are able to sustain a company. However, soon enough, even a bulk of these entrepreneurs end-up struggling with inadequate resources and scarce finances which constraints the augmentation of their firm. This is why scores of startups remain startups for quite some time. It is not that their founders are not ambitious or capable, it is just that they find themselves as helpless as a kitten up a tree.

The good news, however, is that such stagnant startups have found a new way to stride forward in the form of co-working. Co-working is different from mergers and take-overs in the sense that the participating companies still get to retain their independent identities while sharing their resources in a common ecosystem. Each company has some strengths which it can contribute and the deficiencies can be refurbished by contributions of other companies.

This fabricates a healthy give-and-take structure where every startup unearths an obscured passage to its escalation. Co-working leads to the inculcation of a sense of goodwill and contentment among all those who pool resources as each one can see its own goals being achieved as swiftly as those of the others. The field of proficiency of each company is different and when put together, they generate an atmosphere of gaiety and satisfaction which suits and fulfils all the needs of one and all. This technique of collaboration is greatly flexible and unimpeded because every partaker is free to return to its solitude as and when it desires.

The graphic below illustrates the co-working concept very innovatively. The first stage depicts two startups in a “constrained” system, each eyeing its own goal. The subsequent stages indicate how both of them try to achieve their own goals but fall short in the quest to attain victory. After a thought, they decide to co-work and successfully accomplish both the goals.

One can find a lot of examples of successful co-working in the startup ecosystem. Take, for instance, Chakpak and Myntra. The following screenshot will take you to the Chakpak website where you will find a Myntra toolbar which provides you options to get the Avatar wallpaper printed on a t-shirt, mug or even keychain. This is an interesting co-working initiative which has been equally helpful to both the startups.

So this is the basic idea of promoting co-working among startups. I believe it is an effective means for expansion of any firm struggling with lack of resources. All those juvenile entrepreneurs who are still trying to find a way to increase their resource-pool, here’s a suggestion. Step-out of your cocoon and you sure will find someone who would be as willing to co-work with you as you would be with him, and you could soon see yourself prospering.