Blog Archives - SproutBox - CoWorking & Office Space

Well I am back in Mysore, for some review meetings, and it’s that time of the year when the City is looking beautiful. Dasara (Dussehra) in Mysore is amongst the biggest festivals. With the whole city lighted up, municipality busy keeping the streets clean for all the tourists and the citizen, to festivities and events keeping people busy, Mysore is a top destination to visit around this time of the year. Though, it is also the time where the Hotels and Flights to Mysore peak up on their pricing. Albeit, we at SproutBox are here to keep our pricing in check.

Mysore offers a great mix of relaxation, rejuvenation, learning, and even fun. Here are amongst top 4 things you must do when you are Coworking with us from SproutBox Mysore.

The Third Largest Nandi in India: If you peep outside our Large Arched Windows you see a Beautiful hill at the Back. That is the Chamundi Hills. This 1062 Meter high hill is crowned with the Sri Chamundeswari Temple. A Half a Day hike if you want to walk up (and yes Mysore weather allows you to do), or a cab ride from SproutBox can get you there. Some of the days the temple is crowded so plan for that time, and when you are going in buy some lotus and other flowers to give to the goddess. On your way back, stop and visit the Third largest Nandi, and look back at the city and see if you can locate Mall of Mysore, the building in which SproutBox is located (Clue is in the picture).
Eat Local Food: Mysore is Foodie heaven, with a variety of local food both vegetarian and non-vegetarian, you would fall in love with the simplicity of food here. There are international brands, to international foods available, but amongst one of my favourites when in Mysore is the “Egg Biryani” available right here in the Mall of Mysore on the Food court, saving you time from looking for food options when you Cowork from here. Other than the Egg Biryani is the South Indian Thali, my favourite and the one in the picture is from Anima Madhva Bhavan, about a 10 minute drive from Sproutbox Mysore, and this is unmissable when you are here.
Looks Like the White House: Built to host the Viceroy of India on his visit to Mysore, The Lalitha Mahal Palace is now a hotel run by the State Department. While the hotel is not something I personally recommend you stay at, it is a beautiful site to visit. Whenever I have shared pictures of the Lalitha Mahal people dis-agree that this is a building in India, let alone mysore, but then you have to come and visit it. When you are there, try to get a sneak peak at the victorian era elevator – sadly you can only use it if you are a guest. If you use our Private Suite #1 at Sproutbox Mysore you can see the Lalitha Mahal Palace everyday when you look out the Windows – it is also amongst one of my favourite places to work from when in Mysore. The views of lush green trees, red flowers and the Lalitha palace in the end are breath-taking, and also breath-taking is the beautiful swimming pool right next door at the Radisson Hotel. Want to go for a dip – speak to our community managers, and they will help you get this aligned.
The Tallest Church in India: Constructed back in 1936 using a Neo Gothic style, the St. Philomena’s Cathedral‘s architecture is inspired by the Cologne Cathedral in Germany. The floor plan of the cathedral resembles a cross. The long part of the cross is congregation hall called the nave. The two arms of the cross are the transepts. The part containing the altar and the choir is the crossing. The cathedral has a crypt that houses a statue of St. Philomena. The twin spires of the church are 175 feet (53 m) in height and they resemble the spires of the Cologne Cathedral and also the spires of the St. Patrick’s Church in New York City.

There are many more things you can do, which include the standard things, but these are amongst the top 4 things, that you should get to when you are here. Whether you are here for a day and need an office space to upload those videos you shot, or here for a quick meeting and need a meeting room, SproutBox has a solution. Also, when you are Coworking here and need recommendations on something to do, our Community Managers are more than happy to help. See you CoWorking in Mysore

For a long time in my life I had used a Big International Brand for expanding our offices to the world. I found them to be affordable (well not all the time), to help us be where we wanted to be, and offer a solution that we needed, but each time I spent time working from any of these locations, whether it was in Taipei, Singapore, New York or Mumbai – I ended up missing any kind of human interface. Yes I had a fancy little seat, in a corner office, I had a list of people who worked in these centres, and I had a centre manager, but I never met someone, so I could expand my business, expand my professional network, or even have an interesting dialogue. Don’t get me wrong, I did meet a few people over coffee, but they were too eager to leave, than to meet this fat guy who would arrive now and then, and then was not seen for a few days.

When in 2015, I Got a chance to Invest in SproutBox, I was not sure if this was our Business, I knew for sure the Big Brand I was using was growing into many more cities, many more locations, and they even had a location at a stones throw away from the First SproutBox in Gurgaon.

We started with 30 Seats, and soon we were 100 Seats. All of us knew each other, if not by first names, we knew what they did, what team they worked in, and how we could connect to each other to help each other grow. Over the first 2 Years of Business at SproutBox, we generated nearly 2 Crores Rupees of Business in Referrals.

But SproutBox Needed to grow, from being amongst the first few people in the CoWorking Industry, we suddenly heard about International giants coming in, and we ended up growing from the 100 seats we operated in Gurgaon to the 700 Seats that we operate now between Delhi, and Mysore. But with this we lost focus on the community, we now come to a building where we know people by faces, we don’t know their names, but we know what teams they belong to, we don’t know what are they passionate about, but our community managers try to know.

The Other day, in a Strategy meeting, I said – we set out to build communities, and we ended up making offices. Yes we cater to the business need for anyone who needs an office on demand, an office that is flexible, an office that let’s them Scale up and Scale down, but did we build communities? I can still remember the names of our first few coworkers, their habits, their passions, and our connections over movie nights, samosa nights, and sometimes calling the Old Monk over for a Drink. We still do this, but the community is not as tightly knit. Its’ business as usual.

At this time, while SproutBox is building it’s next 300 seats in Delhi, and it’s next 300 Seats in Gurgaon and Chandigarh, we are also thinking of building our 100 Next Seats in a Holiday destination, a Destination we all would love as an office – where we will be a community, that helps each other grow, creates dialogues that are powerful for all of us, cheers us when it’s time to scale up, and creates a nest when it’s time to scale down.

CoWorking was all about Community, CoWorking is now about Flexible Spaces. Can we keep CoWorking about a Community? I would love to hear what your thoughts on this are?

Do you look at a Workspace (not necessarily just a CoWorking Space), that will give you peace of mind, and let you do what you want? Or, do you look at a Workspace, that gives you an additional benefit of communities meeting together, people with interests forming groups, and the space encouraging these communities?

Did you know right now SproutBox Operates two coworking Spaces in India, one in the beautiful city of Mysore, and one in the Industrial Hub of South Delhi at Okhla Industrial Area in Phase 1. If you want to meet an amazing community and find the office for your needs, feel free to drop us a line

4 Must Do Things in Mysore

Is CoWorking About Flexible Office Spaces or Community?