The Covid-19 lockdown brought with it a period of retrospection and innovation, as many took the time to look back on their lives and look to new ventures ahead. According to one survey, there were more startups during the lockdown compared to all time. With time on our hands and a survival instinct kicking in, businesses popped up within no time. Corporate Deck, an innovative co-working space, started its journey during the lockdown and today they have a well-set co-working space setup situated in south Goa.
“The lockdown period gave birth to many startups and freelancers who initially started working from home but in due course started looking for co-working spaces and that prompted us to come up with the idea of the Corporate Deck,” said Mangirish Salelkar, who is also the co-founder of the Umang Software Technologies Pvt Ltd in Goa. According to Mangirish, the idea behind this was to provide a professional co-working space to freelancers, students, professionals, and business executives. “They can come under one roof where they have a productive space to do something which may not be possible in other co-working spaces which are contemporary with respect to space and they have too many events going on. We wanted to provide a more calm and quiet environment and not exactly like a coffee shop, as most of these in the area of North Goa has turned into co-working spaces lately,” he said.
Unlike other co-working spaces in Goa, Corporate Deck has a proper office setup with individual workstations, cabins, and meeting rooms which encourages productivity. “The incubation centers focus on startups, and they have lots of limitations and now due to the lack of takers they have converted it into co-working spaces which again changes their whole meaning of being an incubation center,” said Mangirish.
Another USP of the Corporate Deck according to Mangirish is its plug-and-play setup. “The users do not have to bother about connectivity and other issues: they just check-in and plug their laptops and start. We are also introducing the online mode that will help people to book their hot seats faster at the click of a button,” said Mangirish adding that they have kept the prices of the co-working spaces at the Corporate Deck low compared to the other co-working spaces in Goa.
Corporate Deck also has big expansion plans in the coming days and according to Mangirish, they won’t be investing in real estate but instead will acquire existing furnished spaces across the state. “Currently we have co-working spaces in Margao but soon we will be expanding to Panaji, Mapusa, Vasco, and Ponda. Anyone with ready-furnished places wants to come on board will be welcomed by us and after checking the location and required amenities we will enter into the partnership with the owners on a profit-sharing basis,” he said.
Mangirish also has plans of expanding pan-India, “we are testing the waters with this pilot project and once this becomes self-sustaining we have plans of opening more such co-working spaces across the state and soon in some two or three other cities in India,” he added.
According to Mangirish, the one thing that keeps Corporate Deck apart from the other co-working spaces in Goa is the style which is more of a boutique co-working space, unlike the contemporary spaces that have lazy bags and high-chairs, bar stools, etc. “We have special rates for the student community, and we welcome students who don’t have many resources, to come down and complete their projects at the Corporate Deck with the feel of the corporate world. This way they can work alongside startups and professionals and build good networking around the corporate world.”
Corporate Deck also offers virtual office spaces to startups and for those who are looking to have an office address. It is meant for the people who register their startups but do not want to invest in buying or renting out an office space. “We will also help them in doing the paperwork and arranging the necessary documents which will help them to incorporate the company at a later stage.”
“There are 2 types of packages that we offer: the first is where you can actually incorporate using the address given and the second is just for virtual purposes, and in that, we aren’t giving people any rental agreements but we only provide a NOC to use our address and not for incorporation purposes. This way you can use our address to show that your office is present at so and so location which is helpful for marketing purposes, and so on,” said Mangirish.
The Corporate Deck is also planning to start the 24/7 culture which at the moment no one in Goa does. “There are a lot of BPOs, who have requirements of their staff working in evening or night shifts, we have also received inquiries for the same. There are a lot of our Goan brains working in MNC’s outside Goa. Since a lot of companies have been encouraging work from home as a culture, Corporate Deck is ideal for such people as they get a ready office setup” he said.
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