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Brief
Headcount today and at eighteen months. Capital position. Funding timeline. Whether you need a registered address before anything else. We tell you which structure the answer points to before showing you a single building.
Week 0
Commercial office advisory · Bengaluru
Know exactly what you’re signing.
Groundwork is an independent office advisory for companies setting up in Bengaluru — lease strategy, true-cost analysis, space diligence and incorporation. Built by someone who has negotiated these agreements from the landlord’s side, the operator’s side, and yours.
Capital at risk, day one
₹35–55L
Typical security deposit plus fit-out for a 15-seat traditional lease in Bengaluru. Founders compare the rent figure. This is the number that decides whether the deal was a mistake.
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Sides of the table negotiated from — landlord, operator, occupier
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Rupees of commission taken from any landlord or operator
0 days
To an incorporated entity with a compliant registered address, documents clean
Almost everyone advising you
on office space is paid by
the other side.
Brokers earn their commission from the landlord. Operators sell their own inventory. Lawyers who have never negotiated a lease from the landlord’s side draft around risks they have not personally seen coming.
Groundwork takes no commission from any landlord or operator. You pay us, and we work for you. That is the entire model — and it is the only reason we are free to tell you not to sign.
What we do
Four things, done properly.
We do not find you space and take a cut. We tell you what a space is actually worth to you, then negotiate the paper underneath it.
01
Lease strategy & negotiation
Which structure your headcount and term actually point to — then the clause-by-clause negotiation: lock-in, escalation, exit rights, deposit refund mechanics, scale-up and scale-down provisions.
02
True-cost analysis
One defensible number per option, over your real term: rent and escalation, fit-out, CAM, stamp duty and registration, and the opportunity cost of capital sitting in a deposit. Not the rent card.
03
Space diligence
Carpet against super built-up, real seat count checked against the floor plan, power and HVAC load, occupancy certificate and fire compliance, landlord title and encumbrance, operator financial standing.
04
Incorporation & registered office
Private limited incorporation and a compliant registered office address, sequenced so that neither blocks the other while a round is closing. The most common unforced delay we see, removed.
The calculator
“₹9,000 a seat” and “₹45 a foot”
are not the same number.
Rent is the figure everyone quotes. Fit-out, maintenance, escalation and the capital sitting dead in a deposit are the figures that decide whether the deal was a mistake.
What it models
Both options
Traditional lease against managed office, on the same basis, over the term you actually intend to stay.
What you control
Every figure
Deposit months, escalation, fit-out rate, area per seat, cost of capital — all sliders. Nothing is assumed on your behalf.
What it tells you
The real gap
Total cost of occupancy, capital locked on day one, and the true cost per seat per month for each option.
How it runs
Term sheet to keys,
in five moves.
Six to eight weeks for a traditional lease. Two to three for a managed office. Both start the same way: with your numbers, before anyone looks at a building.
02
Shortlist
Micro-market and building shortlist against your constraints — commute mass, power reliability, landlord reputation, exit liquidity — with the true cost of each option modelled side by side, not the rent card.
Week 1–2
03
Diligence
Floor plans and carpet area verified. Occupancy certificate and fire compliance. Sanctioned power load against your actual draw. Landlord title and encumbrance. For managed space: the operator’s own lease and financial standing.
Week 2–3
04
Negotiation
Term sheet to executed agreement. Lock-in and what it actually locks you into. Escalation. Exit and notice. Deposit refund timeline, joint inspection, wear-and-tear cap. Scale rights across the operator’s other locations.
Week 3–5
05
Handover
Stamping and registration done properly, not deferred. Registered office filings with the ROC. Fit-out oversight where relevant. A signed, photographed move-in inspection on record — the single cheapest protection for your deposit.
Week 5–8
The comparison nobody neutral publishes
Traditional lease vs
managed office.
Neither is the cheap option. They are priced for different situations. Every comparison you have been shown was built by whoever is selling one of them.
| Dimension | Traditional lease | Managed office |
|---|---|---|
| Headline price | ₹45–90 per sq ft per month | ₹9,000–18,000 per seat per month |
| Security deposit | 6–10 months’ rent | 1–3 months’ fee |
| Fit-out | ₹1,100–1,700 per sq ft, one-time. Yours to fund, yours to lose if you move. | ₹0 — bundled |
| Maintenance, housekeeping, security | Your responsibility, separate vendor contracts | Bundled |
| Lock-in period | Typically 24–36 months | Typically 3–12 months, sometimes none |
| Capital tied up on day one | Roughly ₹35–55 lakh, earning nothing while it sits | Roughly ₹3–5 lakh |
| Flexibility to scale | Requires renegotiation or subletting | Usually built in — but only if you ask for it in writing |
| Control over space and branding | Full | Limited, sometimes at extra cost |
| Time to occupancy | 8–14 weeks including fit-out | 2–3 weeks |
| Cost per seat at 40+ seats, 3+ years | Usually cheaper once fit-out amortises | Per-seat premium stays roughly constant |
Journal
What we know, written down.
What “lock-in” actually means
Four questions that move a lock-in clause, and why almost nobody asks them until it is too late to matter.
The true cost of an office in Bengaluru
A line-by-line comparison for a 15-person team on a two-year term — built by nobody selling either option.
The seat count trick
How 1,800 sq ft becomes “fits 30” on a brochure, and 20–25 in the building you actually move into.
Questions
Straight answers.
If yours is not here, ask it directly — most people find the answer changes what they were about to sign.
No. Not a rupee, in any form, from any landlord, developer or managed office operator. We are paid by you, on a fixed fee agreed before we start. It is the only structure under which our advice can be worth anything to you, and it is why we will regularly tell you that the space you like is the wrong deal.
No — and small teams are frequently where the worst deals get signed, because the sums look small enough not to warrant scrutiny. A five-person team taking a 24-month lock-in on a space it will outgrow in nine months is a more expensive mistake, proportionally, than a forty-person team getting a clause slightly wrong.
For teams under about ten people the engagement is usually shorter and cheaper, and often ends with us telling you to take a managed office and revisit in a year.
Less than before you signed, but not nothing. Lock-in and escalation are effectively fixed once executed. Deposit refund mechanics, wear-and-tear deductions and move-in condition are still live, and a documented joint inspection can be put on record at any point — it is the single cheapest thing you can do to protect a deposit that is already paid.
If you are approaching a renewal or an exit notice window, that is the point at which the whole agreement reopens.
Usually inside a week. Incorporation needs a registered office address on day one, and a traditional lease often cannot be signed, stamped and registered fast enough to meet that timeline. A managed office agreement — precisely because the deposit and lock-in are lighter — will frequently produce a valid address in days.
This is often the fastest unblock in the whole gap between a term sheet and a funded, operating company, even for a company that intends to move to a traditional lease later.
A fixed fee, scoped and agreed in writing before any work starts, with no percentage of rent, no success fee tied to you signing something, and no commission from the other side. If the right answer turns out to be “stay where you are for another six months,” we are paid exactly the same.
Get in touch
Send us the agreement
before you sign it.
A first conversation is free and usually takes twenty minutes. Bring your headcount, your term, and whatever paper you have been sent.