new hackpacker hostels are offering startups a place to live work and network with a likeminded community at pocketfriendly pricesshashikiran rao had an idea a year and half ago that has only now taken shape form and a name its a hacker hostel in bengaluru called construkt a coliving space where young startups and creatives can bunk down when they travel to the city on work in search of work or even chasing down an idea that will one day work its an extension of the coworking concept only here you can live and work with others in the gig economyconstrukt works out of a leased bungalow in indiranagar a venture that cost rao and his cofounder karan bahadur rs 22 lakh here five rooms can accommodate 20 people on bunkbeds theres a communal kitchen a common room a terrace clean bathrooms books wifi and estate coffee on offer our aim was to put out a minimal viable product that could be markettested for workability if it works well scale it up says 36yearold raoabroad success stories have already scaled up wework a new yorkbased coworking rental company with units in 27 cities india is on the cards and a valuation of 16 billion is expecting its new coliving company welive to pull in revenue of 636 million by 2018 and attract as many as 34000 members another coliving enterprise in brooklyn common has received 2000 applications for 30 spotsdemand it seems is through the roof in india its the supply that has to catch up in november rao and bahadur commissioned a market survey among 600 people in the startup ecosystem they learned on average 18000 room nights are consumed by startups annually in bengaluru ncr and mumbai the nightly hotel spend is between rs 1500 and rs 2500 what their travel sorely lacked they said was community connect opportunities to interact with others in the business says rao they typically conduct their meetings in coffee shops and coworking spaces a more immersive environment was yet to be made available where they could eat sleep hack repeat a coliving space could be the answerthey can range from the exotic to the hermetic coliving places can be tropical paradises like hubud in bali or they could be multistoreyed apartment buildings like commons in brooklyn in india theyre mostly small bungalows with four to five dorms and the bare necessities you get to hear the inside news and learn new things in these places says siddhesh tiwatne cofounder of gobiggi a marketing platform the punebased entrepreneur spent three nights at construkt last week while visiting bengaluru to meet potential partnersmukul pasricha founder of a coworking property in gurgaon recently created a similar model called spring house the founder of a food tech startup wanted a bed at our coworking place says pasricha who saw potential in the bedandboard model so he started two on golf course road and dlf phase 4theres great demand for such spaces as gurgaon