It’s a tale as old as—well, at least the Indian startup boom. A Gurgaon-based startup founder, eager to jump straight to the ‘dream office’ phase, signed a ₹50 lakh lease for a workspace fit for a six-person team—still wrestling with their beta product. Watching this unfold, local entrepreneur Brij Mall didn’t see an ambitious leap. Instead, he saw a red flag waving vigorously in the breeze of overconfidence.
A Lesson Served with a Side of Tea
Mall shared his disbelief on LinkedIn: “I nearly choked on my tea, staring at the ‘Hustle Hard’ poster he hadn’t lived up to yet.”
To steer the founder back on track, Mall took him to a nearby Bengaluru coworking space, pointing out rows of empty desks.
He said this place was taken by his competitor, but the company sank. He also warned the young founder that glass cabins and flashy things do not attract talent.
But the founder was of the opinion: “It’s a steal. We need it to attract talent and build culture.”
All warning signs and ghostly workstations didn’t keep the founder from signing that lease. A year in, with growth stalled and bank balances shaken, the Gurgaon workspace was on the sublet market.
“The root cause was not the rent,” Mall quipped, “but the ego expense—the priciest line item on any founder’s balance sheet.”
Why the Startup Boom Is Booming and Busting?
Despite surges in funding and record company launches, over 90% of Indian startups reportedly fail within five years. The culprit?
Premature scaling, questionable financial choices, and yes—those high-profile, high-rent leases.
Fancy real estate may shout credibility, but often it leads to front-loaded costs that outpace any real revenue.
Some numbers for your next chai break:
- Startups now account for 19% of all major office leases in India’s top cities, covering over 24.8 million sq ft.
- Coworking spaces are the new startup darling, serving 60% of their office needs—a flexible, no-strings-attached approach for teams still finding their feet.
Culture vs. Decor: The Empty Desk Epidemic
Rows of empty desks are now as much a part of the Indian startup scene as pitch decks and pivot stories. They stand as silent reminders: building company culture doesn’t mean building out a posh office on day one. The true warning isn’t the plush carpet, but the timing—locking into costly leases with small teams and unproven products is a move that often leads founders to become landlords rather than leaders.
In the end, Mall’s advice is as crisp as a freshly printed rental agreement: “Don’t confuse signal with substance.”
Or, perhaps, don’t put your hustle on the wall before you’ve lived it on the ground.
