Working in a start-up means doing everything yourself, and this holds doubly true for “admin work”. We realized this when we set out to get ourselves a new office space.

We had a checklist from what we wanted from our new office:

• Window and Sunlight
• Place to sleep when tired
• Furniture without sharp edges
• Chairs that did not tilt sideways
• Small pantry
• etc…

Seems easy enough. Oh, but I wish it were. From finding a non-leaky building (not so easy in Mumbai it turns out), negotiating the contract (some landlords are truly demented, but fortunately ours is a really nice guy), getting BMC permissions (consultants ran away with money), designing the office, procuring materials, supervising workers, selecting chairs, and so much more – it tooks us 3 months of sustained effort to craft our new office out.

Palak, our friendly neighbourhood architect, did the design and we all pitched in with the execution. And after all that effort, I feel it was worth it. We had our beautiful, playful office complete with library and pantry and writeable-walls!

Which brings me to this: We Have A Window. Where in Mumbai would you be able to look out of your office and see hills and forests of greenery? Lo and behold:

A quick picture-tour of our new work space: