Recliner 1 photo feature
92 | forbes india august 4, 2017the hive
Khar (West)
Mumbai
Since moving on from his career
in the hospitality sector, Sudeip
Nair had been mulling over a
question: What should the live
entertainment ecosphere be like?
Established venues in most big
cities are booked for years by
established artistes, leaving
newcomers and experimental
performers struggling to get a
toehold. This led to Nair to create
space in a converted bungalow,
“with an open courtyard and
two terraces”, that supports
performances, a recording
studio, a co-working space for
collaborative startups and a café.
Focusing on live performances,
The Hive hosted 700 events
in 2016—a record according to
Allevents.in, an event aggregator.
For co-workers, it offers basic
utilities such as Wi-Fi, beverages,
meeting rooms and event spaces.WSquare
adyar
Chennai
“We were recruiting women for our digital marketing agency,” recalls Vandhana
Ramanathan, founder and CEO of WSquare, “and were amazed at the sheer number
who had quit their jobs because they felt guilty about leaving their children behind.”
They couldn’t work from home either, given the many interruptions. That spurred
Vandhana and co-founder Jinal Patel to find a homey space—an independent two-
floor house with a garden in a residential area—and launch WSquare, a women-only
co-working space, in 2016. What they do differently: Run a concierge service that
takes care of grocery shopping, home-cooked meal takeaways, on-call services like a
beautician, a personal ‘me’ room and child care services. They also saw a disconnect
between women who want to resume work after a long sabbatical and corporations
looking to hire them; they are now developing a database to address this issue.
WSquare aims to expand to 100 centres in South India over the next 18 months.adyaRChennaihIVe : Joshua Na
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