A Plush Work, Life Space

The Quorum founder and CEO, Vivek Narain, describes his transition from banking to hospitality and then to the real estate industry as a journey of trial and error. The 46-year-old visionary entrepreneur founded The Quorum, a multi-purpose members-only exclusive club in 2016 and launched it in 2018. Now, he is stepping into the realm of 'hospitality-powered' rentable workspaces with his latest venture, district150. 

Vivek Narain began his career with the London-headquartered Barclays bank, where he was approached by US-based investors who proposed a Special Purpose Acquisition Corporation. “In 2006, we were approached by some US investors who wanted to do a new private equity vehicle called a Special Purpose Acquisition Corporation or SPAC.  The SPACs went on to become quite popular and they remain reasonably popular as an alternative listing vehicle. At the time when we did it, it was brand new. I don't think people understood what it was, I don't think we understood what we were doing,” recalls Narain. 

A Special Purpose Acquisition Company or SPAC is essentially a company without commercial operations and is formed strictly to raise capital through an initial public offering (IPO) for the sole aim of acquiring existing companies. The SPACs are also known as blank check companies. Narain spearheaded this operation in India along with his then-partner. “...we went ahead and bought an airline catering company, a diversified portfolio of restaurants and a small boutique hotel company and that was baptism by fire on how I learned and got into hospitality,” Narain goes on to say. 

In 2015, Fairmont Raffles, a global hospitality brand, then owned by the Qatari Investment Authority that Narain was associated with, decided to discontinue its operations in India. This was a crossroads moment for Narain as it compelled him to choose between staying in the country and going abroad. Little did he know that this would be when the idea of The Quorum would take shape. 

“I saw the member's club business popping up in cities around the world and I said, ‘hey, no one's done it’. I've heard people talk about it, but no one's really done it and I was foolish enough to try it,” reminisces Narain. 

*The Quorum 

The rest as they say is history. Narain raised capital and opened The Quorum for the public in 2018 at Gurugram. “It's been rewarding, it's been fun and it's been painful. It's all of the above,” admits Vivek Narain candidly. He goes on to explain that whenever something new comes up, there's always a little bit of a consumer acceptance curve that one has to go through. “…you need to be the patient,” he says vehemently. 

“It takes time to build credibility,” emphasises Narain looking back at his journey from launching The Quorum to establishing it as a hub for social and business lifestyle. He also mentions that he was fortunate to have a very strong business partner who happened to be the real estate owner of The Quorum’s Gurugram property. This partnership helped Narain build a business without the adjunct financial pressures. “…we put our head down, we did what we could do best and we found our niche in the market,” says Narain.

Roadmap for the Journey

Asked about his roadmap for The Quorum, Vivek Narain says given his position today, he   strongly believes that he is at the beginning of a new chapter. Although this genre of clubs ‒ i.e., private members-only clubs ‒ has been in India for a long time, Narain has tried to introduce something that is a tad different. “The fundamental question was, how do you create a third space where people would want to come, dine, entertain, work and socialise?’ Narain wanted to create a place for the like-minded to meet, connect and essentially create a community with hospitality at the core. Even from a genre perspective, The Quorum is different from what Narain calls establishment clubs. "They were created generations ago. We are contemporary. We are new,” he points out. 

The district150 Story 

District 150 is Vivek Narain’s latest venture. Taking the concepts of 'corporate' and 'hospitality' and concocting a combination that serves both seems to be Narain’s game plan. In the midst of our conversation, we did not forget to ask the quintessential question. What prompted the name ‘district150’? 

Narain talks of British philanthropist Robin Dunbar and his thesis that Homo sapiens can only have 150 meaningful relationships, eventually revealing the story behind the name ‘district150’. Dunbar’s studies have revealed a lot of information about the behavioural mechanisms behind the number and nature of primate relationships. His work highlights that social cohesion and long-term bonding among primates, Homo sapiens included, are the keys to their evolutionary success. 

‘Human beings have managed to break this and maintain more than 150 relationships but for that, they’ve had to create fiction, i.e., law and order, religion, the idea of a nationhood, to name a few,” Narain points out. 

“We realised that a big part of our revenue was coming from people who wanted entertainment for both corporate as well as social requirements,” he tells us. The realisation found Narian and his team staring at a gap in the Indian ecosystem in the events and meetings space and eventually led to the evolution of district150. 

This story does beg one question. How is district any different from what the hotels are already doing? “Hotels typically have a banquet hall, they’ll have chandeliers and carpets that are focused on the wedding market. Meetings and events, however, come in many different forms,” explains Narain. 

“We felt like there was an opportunity to create meetings and invent infrastructure, especially in a country like India where I could tell that you know they are few and far between,” he tells us. It was clear to us that the district150 concept fundamentally revolves around corporate meetings, social events and cultural infrastructure. This confluence of the elements is what Narain and his team are trying to tap into. 

“Through design, if we could create a meetings, events and cultural infrastructure and repurpose the office building … even from an urban planning perspective, I think it’s a win-win for developers,” says The Quoram and district150 founder confidently. 

How Is district150 Different from The Quorum? 

The Quorum and district150 are both real estate projects undertaken by Vivek Narain and if you really think about it, both these projects bank on bringing like-minded people together. However, both belong to separate genres and have distinct target audiences. We ask Narain to shed some light on the differences between his two businesses. 

“Our club business is, by definition not scalable, because we're trying to build a community of the top socio-economic bracket. district150 is more scalable. Using a lot of what we've learned in the club business this (district150) is a more scalable business model. And we believe we can fill a fairly large gap in the market as well,” he explains.  

“I think it’s more nuanced…,” says Narain when we infer that The Quorum was a concept for the top one per cent of the socio-economic scale. “The Quorum is a membership-driven model,” he says. The Quorum, at the end of the day, is a members-only club that runs on a subscription model. Its services are only available to members and guests of members. “We’re exclusive, yet we are inclusive,” he says. With programming, thought leadership and culture as key pillars, The Quorum is aiming to build a community of like-minded people across all genders, professions and age groups. 

district150, on the other hand, is a hospitality-powered meetings and events infrastructure that is meant for anyone and everyone. “Companies want to host their clients, they want to host their employees or they want to host comedy nights. People want to host parties, their 40th or 50th anniversary… There is a need for cultural infrastructure that doesn’t exist in our country,” explains Narain as he spells out his vision. 

Narain was quick to answer when asked whether he would be competing with the WeWorks of India. “We are not a co-working space,” he clarifies. Co-working spaces are based on a rental arbitrage business model whereas district150 is a hospitality-themed meeting and events venue that cannot be rented, per se. “People pay for the day, get their work done and leave, it’s not a co-working space,” he emphasises. 

When you think of venues for corporate events, gatherings, festivities and special occasions, you often think of hotels and their lavish halls. That is exactly what Vivek Narain is competing against. “Our demand comes from people who normally go to the hotels,” Narain clarifies. 

*What All Does District 150 Have to Offer? 

“So we have a restaurant that's open to the public. It's a modern Indian contemporary Indian restaurant. We have a partnership with Subko which is one of the best coffee brands in the country. Very artisanal,” says Narain on being probed about district150’s unique selling proposition (USP). 

district150’s primary offerings include rentable working spaces. There are plenty of different spaces that are available for hire. They have something called ‘the stage’ which is inspired by opera-style theatre, designed specifically for corporate presentations and corporate parties. They have something called the ‘Dunbar room’ which is a 3,500 square feet banquet space. There is a room called ‘the Grid’ that is built for photo shoots. There are pre-function spaces that are designed like members’ club lounges. They even have a podcast room, the room where we conducted the interview. Add all of this and an abundance of meeting spots spread all across the property and you have for yourself what Vivek Narain calls the ‘future of meetings and events’. 

Narain strongly believes that being amenity-rich is the way forward for corporate real estate properties. “People don’t mind being in an amenity-rich environment,” he adds. 

As per Narain, there is a race to make office buildings amenity-rich and district150 will be taking the lead. “An amenity 5-10 years ago was a Starbucks in the lobby, then it was a bunch of restaurants in a plaza. This (district150), is the future of the amenitisation of the office building. 

*Talking About the Big Picture 

Narain’s goal is to build district150s across the country, partnering with all grade-A developers in India. “We believe that they should have an amenity like district150 in all their buildings,” he says. He chooses not to divulge which city was on his radar for the next district150. He does emphasise that it was a highly scalable business and that he planned to   expand to major cities like New Delhi, Bengaluru and Mumbai. “Easier said than done but that’s definitely the aspiration,” adds Narain. 

The saying “roads that lead to a great view are seldom paved with marble” seems apt here. Vivek Narain’s journey from banking to hospitality to real estate seems nothing short of a rollercoaster ride. Be it expanding the Quorum Club or starting a new expedition with district150, it’ll be interesting to see how Narain’s vision of introducing and expanding the cultural infrastructure in the country unfurls. One being asked whether he’ll do it all over again, the answer he gives resonates with his energy. “… I think I would,” he says.