If you are looking for a small yet swanky office space with some amazing people around in some of the hottest business places in the country without too much to spend, you should thank Ritesh Malik who innov8-ed to make your dream come true!
A doctor by education from Dr. M.G.R Medical University in 2013, he pursued Marketing Science 101 course at London School of Economics while continuing his MBBS.
The Doctor turned entrepreneur Ritesh Malik is the man behind Innov8, the co-working place running from the “heritage building” in one of the world’s most expensive office spaces, Connaught Place. Jumping from what is considered one of the most secure careers in India to entrepreneurship wasn’t the easiest decision of his life. “I always wanted to become an entrepreneur, but hailing from a family of doctors, it was hard for me to not become a doctor first. It was in the year 2009, while I bunked my class in MBBS college to pursue a summer school at LSE when I realised that I definitely want to become an entrepreneur & started up my first venture 2 years later when I was in my final year,” Ritesh explains.
Though Innov8 is his biggest claim to fame, it wasn’t his first entrepreneurial project. “I was one of the cofounders of Adstuck Consulting, which build augmented reality products, one of which is used heavily by the Times of India group called ‘Alive App’. Post that, I have been an investor with over 30 startups & have worked on multiple social missions to foster startup building in India,” Ritesh reveals.
Malik says he realized that India doesn’t have any intellectual hubs for the people from different fields to collaborate, ideate, come up with interesting products. Malik decided to do something about it. “On Dec 15, 2015, we launched our first coworking space in Connaught Place, New Delhi.”
And with the campus filling up with the first fortnight of the launch, Malik knew he has struck just the right cord. Now with the rising demands from other parts of the country, he is planning to open two more centres in Bangalore and Mumbai.
All of 26, Malik has also turned into an angel investor and is always on the lookout for interesting projects in need of funding. On being asked about what he looks out for before investing, Malik tells us, “Passion. Passion. Passion. Its a small fund & I just look out of passionate people solving large scale problems of India. I take pride in the Make In India mission.”
As a serial entrepreneur and an angel investor, he has a word of advice for the budding entrepreneur, “Never startup for any reason but passion towards solving the problem. Chances are you will seldom succeed until you're mad about building the best product.” And advice would he like to give to Brainbuxa? “It inspires! Keep up the great work,” Malik cheerfully says.
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