When a Gurgaon founder signed a ₹50 lakh lease for a six-person startup still in beta, Brij Mall, a local businessman, saw a cautionary tale—not a culture-building win.

Writing on LinkedIn, Mall described how the founder justified the plush Gurgaon office as essential for attracting talent and shaping company culture. Mall wasn’t convinced. “I nearly choked on my tea, staring at the ‘Hustle Hard’ poster he hadn’t lived up to yet,” he wrote.

He tried to intervene, taking the founder to a coworking space in Bengaluru, pointing out rows of empty desks. “This is your competition’s graveyard,” Mall warned. But the founder signed the lease anyway—and ended up subletting the space a year later after high burn and stalled growth. “Not because the office was pricey… Because the decision was,” Mall added. “Ego is the biggest expense on a founder’s balance sheet.”

In India’s current startup boom, that ego can be fatal. Despite strong funding flows and record new launches, over 90% of Indian startups still fail within five years—many due to premature scaling and poor financial judgment. Lavish office leases are a repeat offender.

According to recent data, startups now make up nearly 19% of all major office leases in India’s biggest cities, totaling over 24.8 million sq ft. Many founders equate swanky offices with credibility, but this often front-loads fixed expenses long before revenue stabilizes.

Coworking spaces, meanwhile, are gaining traction—now serving 60% of startup office needs—thanks to their flexibility and lower burn. Experts say the problem isn’t the office size, but timing: locking into long-term leases with small teams and unproven products can derail a venture before it finds its footing.

Rows of empty desks have become a fixture in India’s startup ecosystem—testaments to founders who confused culture with decor, and signal with substance.