For SMEs as well as startups, setting up real estate can be a huge drain on liquid resources as well as a significant point of delay in rollouts. We offer an affordable solution to this problem, said Meenal Sinha, Founder and CEO of Meetingsandoffices.com, in an exclusive interview with SME Times.

Excerpts of the interview…

Please tell our readers about Meetingsandoffices.com?
Meenal Sinha: Meetingsandoffices.com (MnO) is a platform aggregating meeting and office spaces across all co-working and shared workspaces and currently offers a cumulative seat count of about 100,000. It offers a complete end to end solution with search, compare, credibility verification (verifications are carried out while listing and more importantly user ratings are built in), book online and pay. After just a few minutes at meetingsandoffices.com the user can simply reach the venue and get straight to work.

Flexibility of usage and extensive choices that we offer help us stand out. MnO offers space in more than 16 cities, 200+ locations, 500+ meeting rooms and board rooms and 95,000+ workstations across India.

How and why this idea came to your mind?
Meenal Sinha: I have been an evangelist of shared economy since 2007 and was closely associated with the development of coworking space sector globally. However, India still lacked a co-working platform that was user-friendly and efficient at the same time.

My goal for starting MnO was two-fold, to provide the best curated platform for shared & flexible workspaces , a platform that catered for every taste and need. Second, to become a robust business facilitator and create an actively engaged community that finds benefits far beyond merely viable, desirable space.

How your services are going to helps SMEs?
Meenal Sinha: For SMEs as well as startups, setting up real estate can be a huge drain on liquid resources as well as a significant point of delay in rollouts. With the flexibility of 'designed to taste' coworking not only are costs optimized, scaling - both up and down - become far simpler as well as easier. Expenses shift to the OPEX side of the ledger and there is no need to get into CAPEX considerations, which can be a big advantage in decision making. Also, the administrative hassles of managing your own independent office tend to consume a lot of otherwise productive time. With shared workspaces businesses can focus on their core functional areas and leave the space management to experts.

Most startups and even well-established companies now prefer Coworking spaces during their test phase and launch phase in new geographies. Coworking as a concept is here to stay and we believe will be an important part of the economy soon.

Please share your views on the Indian office rental scenario?
Meenal Sinha: There is a steady uptick in the number of new and growing businesses. We are an economy on the move and demand is growing rapidly for professional workspaces. Even during turbulent times for other sectors, commercial real estate & the office rental markets have remained steady. With more young businesses coming up & small businesses growing bigger, the office rental market will not only grow in size but will also demand better spaces, greater flexibility in options & better service.

The other trend will be proliferation of alternate business districts as cities decentralise their business concentrations. We will also see a firm definitive shift for businesses that have till now operated from industrial spaces towards formal office spaces. All in all the outlook is very positive.

A general question, how you see Indian SMEs in relation to its global peers?
Meenal Sinha: Indian SMEs are one of the greatest success stories globally as the sector has grown, thrived & contributed even in the absence of conducive conditions. Now as the economy assumes the proportions of a global powerhouse, the surge forward will be led by our SMEs.

Indian SMEs will also change dimensions, growing larger in terms of output, business value, manpower & wealth creation. Today the average Indian SME is comparatively much smaller than those in the developed world, this disparity shall also equalise.

Indian SMEs shall need more space, manpower, financing & technology. They will also consume more industrial production, utilities & services as they grow. India's leap to the next level will also be the fruition of her already impressive SME story.

Please share your future plans.
Meenal Sinha: Meetings and offices is in the process of consolidating it's Indian footprint. We are driven by user need and as such our plans include evolving an international presence to cater to our audiences that want to do business seamlessly throughout the planet. We already have international capabilities and we shall be strengthening these in the future.

We are also implementing plans to strengthen our offering by providing access to a greater array of services, people & networks.