Where a startup's money should actually go
The instinct on a first office is to spend on the parts investors and candidates see: the reception, the logo wall, the café. The problem is that those are also the easiest things to add in year two, while the things that are nearly impossible to add later — structured cabling, power distribution, partition acoustics and the number of enclosed rooms — are invisible. Our allocation for a lean fit-out inverts the instinct.
| Element | % of a lean budget | Why | Defer? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Electrical and power distribution | 16–20% | Chasing a floor twice costs more than doing it once | No |
| Data and structured cabling | 6–9% | Cat 6A and a proper rack; retrofitting is disruptive | No |
| Partitions and enclosed rooms | 18–24% | Rooms are the thing every startup under-builds | No |
| HVAC modification | 8–14% | Diffuser relocation follows the partition layout | No |
| Ceiling and lighting | 10–14% | Grid ceiling and LED panels; cheap and adequate | Partly |
| Flooring | 6–10% | Carpet tile in open plan, vinyl elsewhere | Partly |
| Furniture | 16–22% | System desks and task chairs | No — but buy in phases |
| Reception and branding | 2–5% | A good desk and a painted logo wall | Yes, mostly |
| Bespoke joinery and feature work | 0–4% | The first thing to cut | Yes |
The rates
| Spec | What it means | ₹ per sq ft, ex-GST | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bare minimum | Reuse base-build ceiling and flooring, 3 rooms, open plan, basic power | ₹1,100–₹1,650 | A 12-month sublease you will leave |
| Lean | New grid ceiling, carpet tile, 6–8 rooms, proper power and data, system furniture | ₹1,530–₹2,290 | Most Series A and B offices |
| Considered | Acoustic ceiling, more rooms, better furniture, some timber and colour | ₹1,920–₹2,880 | Series B/C, 5-year lease |
| Full spec | See our office fit-out pages | ₹2,370–₹3,550 | Once the headcount is stable |
Add 18% GST. A warm shell reduces every band by roughly ₹180–₹400 per sq ft because the ceiling grid, basic lighting, fire system and flooring are already in. Every band here is taken from offices we have completed and billed, brought up to October 2026.
Design and build under one accountable roof
Buy furniture that can be added to
This is the decision that most often bites a growing company. A joinery-built bench desk costs about the same as a system desk and cannot be extended — in year two you either order fifteen more from a carpenter who will not match the original laminate batch, or you replace the lot. A system product from a manufacturer with a spares channel can be added to for five or six years, and you can buy the second tranche when you need it rather than now.
- Bench desks: 1200 mm per person in a six- or eight-pack, with a shared cable spine. ₹11,000–₹22,000 per seat in a system product.
- Task chairs: the one place not to economise, because everyone sits in one for nine hours. ₹8,500–₹22,000 for something with a real mesh back and adjustable arms and lumbar.
- Storage: mobile pedestals are the wrong answer in a hybrid office. Buy a locker bank instead, at ₹4,500–₹9,000 per locker.
- Meeting tables: buy, do not build. A 2400 mm table with a cable port is ₹28,000–₹65,000 and can be moved.
- Avoid matching everything. Two chair models — one for desks, one for meeting rooms — is enough, and it makes replacements easier for years.
The six things startups under-build, in order
- Call rooms. Six to ten per 100 seats. A startup floor with two phone booths becomes a floor where people take calls on the fire stairs.
- Power at the desk. Four outlets per seat minimum: laptop, monitor, dock, phone. Retrofitting floor boxes into a completed carpet is ₹4,500–₹9,000 per box.
- The electrical panel headroom. Size the distribution board for 1.6 times day-one load. Adding a way later means an outage and the landlord's electrician.
- Acoustics. Partitions to slab in every room, NRC 0.70 ceiling in the open plan. Cheap now, impossible later.
- Pantry capacity. Two microwaves and one sink for 80 people creates a 25-minute lunch queue. Plan the pantry for peak, like everything else.
- Server and comms room cooling. A rack in a cupboard without dedicated cooling fails in a Mumbai May.
Plan the office for the headcount you will have, not the one you have
The specific difficulty of a startup fit-out is that the brief has a short half-life. A 60-person company signing 5,000 sq ft is usually planning for 110 within two years, and the honest way to handle that is not to build 110 desks now. It is to build a floor that can absorb them without a second shutdown.
- Lay the power and data spine for the full plateFloor boxes or ceiling-fed poles at the eventual desk grid, capped where not yet used. An unused floor box costs ₹2,200–₹4,000; adding one into a live carpeted floor costs ₹4,500–₹9,000 and a weekend.
- Size the DB and the HVAC for 1.6xElectrical headroom and one spare AHU zone. Both are cheap on day one and both require a landlord shutdown later.
- Partition the rooms now, furnish the open plan laterRooms are construction; desks are a purchase order. Build all the rooms you will need at 110 people and buy 60 desks.
- Choose a furniture range with a stated spares windowAsk the manufacturer in writing how long the range will be supplied. Five years is a reasonable answer; 'it is a current model' is not.
- Keep one zone deliberately unfinished800–1,200 sq ft with the ceiling and floor done and nothing else. It absorbs the first surprise — a team you did not plan for, or a lab, or a second boardroom.
What to cut without regret
| Cut | Saves on 5,000 sq ft | Cost to add later | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bespoke reception desk | ₹2.5–₹6 L | Same | Cut it; paint the logo, buy a good desk |
| Feature ceiling in the open plan | ₹4–₹9 L | High — needs the floor cleared | Cut, but keep the acoustic tile |
| Glass fronts on every room | ₹3–₹7 L | Moderate | Cut half; solid partitions are cheaper and more private |
| Breakout amphitheatre | ₹5–₹12 L | Low | Cut; buy stackable seating |
| Branded graphics package | ₹1.5–₹4 L | Low | Cut; do it at year two when the brand has settled |
| Upgraded flooring in circulation | ₹2–₹5 L | High | Keep the base flooring for now |
Spend on the things buried in the floor and the ceiling. You can buy a nice sofa in year three; you cannot re-cable an occupied office.
Greenbox commercial fit-out lead
Selected work by Greenbox Design Studio. Tap any image to enlarge.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a startup office fit-out cost per square foot?+
₹1,530 to ₹2,290 per sq ft of carpet area for a lean but proper 2026 fit-out in Mumbai, ex-GST — new grid ceiling, carpet tile, six to eight enclosed rooms, proper power and data, and system furniture. Below about ₹1,100 something structural is being left out, usually the acoustics, the room count or the electrical headroom.
What should a startup spend on first in an office?+
Electrical distribution, structured cabling, partitions and enclosed rooms, in that order — roughly 40 to 53 per cent of a lean budget between them. All four are buried, disruptive to change and cheap to do once. Reception, branding and feature joinery are the reverse: highly visible, easy to add in year two, and the correct thing to cut now.
Should we buy furniture or have desks made?+
Buy a system product with a spares channel. A carpenter-built bench desk costs roughly the same and cannot be extended — when you add fifteen people in year two the laminate batch will not match and you will end up replacing the lot. System desks run ₹11,000 to ₹22,000 per seat and can be added to for five or six years.
How long does a 5,000 sq ft office fit-out take?+
Six to eight weeks on site once the landlord has approved the drawings, plus two to four weeks for that approval itself. A lean specification does not shorten the programme much, because the critical path is partitions, MEP first fix and ceiling closure regardless of what finish goes on afterwards.
What is the difference between a bare shell and a warm shell for a startup?+
A warm shell arrives with the ceiling grid, basic lighting, fire detection and sprinklers, flooring and often the HVAC already in, which takes roughly ₹180 to ₹400 per sq ft out of your fit-out. A bare shell is a concrete floor plate. Check which your lease actually describes before you budget — the terms are used loosely in Mumbai.