Private clubs become new ‘It’ spots for the well-heeled

In the heart of Gurugram, there’s a new space where people congregate to eat, drink, schmooze, and even seal a deal or two. No, it’s not a coffee shop or a mall but a private, members-only club called The Quorum. In the dining area, young professionals type furiously into their laptops, entrepreneurs get together for ‘cappuccino commerce’, and friends gossip (I hear snatches of a conversation about a mutual friend: ‘Look, don’t get me wrong, I love him. He’s a great guy…when he’s sober’).The Quorum, founded by Vivek Narain and Sonya Jehan, is one of several new and emerging private clubs coming up in Indian metros. Offline, a club for elite tech founders in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru just raised $2 million in funding. The global brand Soho House already has an outpost in Mumbai, and even veterans in the space like The Taj are re-configuring their decades-old clubs.Medium108412986 The idea behind these members-only clubs seems to be to create exclusive spaces for India’s new elite — techies, CEOs and creative leaders — with a more relaxed vibe as compared to the cigar-suit fustiness of the old establishment clubs. Plus, the gymkhanas and golf clubs have years-long waiting lists, and even paying an arm and a leg can’t help you get a foot in. So, instead of having noses forever pressed against the glass, the young, hip and rich are heading to these newer spaces.Offline, the techie-focused club, was founded by Utsav Somani and is currently in the process of onboarding its first group of members. Jinanda Sheth, COO, says, “The journey of a founder can be a tiresome and often a lonely one, where it isn’t possible to make meaningful connections with those who are in the same boat merely through brief interactions. Offline was created to be the neutral community for handpicked startup founders who are looking for their tribe so they can upskill and navigate the problems challenging their growth together.”Not just any startup founder, though. Founders and CEOs must meet one of the following criteria: they’ve raised $5M+ in funding (in the previous 3 years), had an annual revenue of $5M+, had an exit of $10M+ or are currently valued at $50M+, in which case CXOs may apply as well. They plan to organise social events such as Michelin star dinners, private art exhibitions and other unique cultural experiences, quarterly speaker and workshop series and a monthly ‘pod’ meeting where founders are divided into pods of 6-8 people, whose conversations are facilitated by an executive coach. Be warned, though, no pitching is allowed during the sessions.Medium108412987 Unlike business-oriented clubs, Soho House is all about creating communities for creative people. Kelly Wardingham, head of operations, Asia, says the idea behind opening a Soho House in Mumbai was to embrace the diversity of the city. “Mumbai has a rich cultural heritage with diverse ethnicities, cultures, religions, and backgrounds. Our international members had been asking for a House in Mumbai,” she says. “We have members from creative industries like music, design, art, film, fashion, tech, media and advertising.” Besides privacy, it offers an opportunity to network.Writer and ad professional Swapan Seth is a member of The Quorum and describes it as “a nice little haven from the stupid people you bump into in Delhi and Gurugram”. He adds, “Plus, the smoking room is a hub of private equity and VCs — there’s a deal being made there every second.”Narain differentiates between the kind of clubs coming up in India — while some are residential clubs open to only those who live in a condominium, others are more strictly business clubs. There are, of course, the country clubs that have been around for years. He sees The Quorum as being part of a new space — the urban lifestyle club. “All my friends in Delhi would tell me they never meet interesting people, so a gap was there fundamentally. But building a new category can be challenging — people would ask, ‘What’s the point of this?’ ‘Where’s the swimming pool?’.” What began as arm-twisting friends to join has now turned into a robust community of 2,500 members in Delhi and Mumbai who can enjoy its curated programming of everything from sufi music to book readings or quaff craft cocktails.Writer Anuja Chauhan, whose novel ‘Club You To Death’ was set in a posh Delhi club, says, “Whether it’s Enid Blyton’s ‘Secret Seven’ or the gymkhana, it’s all about exclusivity. Like how Susie from ‘Secret Seven’ is always trying to get in, it’s the same thing.” Club memberships give you the tag of being an insider or ‘khandaani’. “As our social structures get revamped, clubs change too.”The Taj has recently renovated its club in the capital. Satyajeet Krishnan, area director and general Manager, Taj Mahal New Delhi, says, “We’ve re-imagined the club, making it larger and adding propositions.” The new Chambers in Delhi is meant to be a prototype for other renovations. It has five new meeting spaces, organises dinners by Michelin star chefs and adds benefits like members can use a pool in any Taj property in India.These memberships are not cheap, but that’s kind of the idea. Krishnan says membership at The Chambers costs around Rs 25-30 lakh as a one-time fee, along with an annual subscription of Rs 3 lakh. “We have over 2,000 members, with about 700 in Delhi. There is a need for people to have spaces to conduct business because the economy has grown and new industries have opened up. Plus, these are people who have arrived in life. They want spaces that are an extension of their personality where they meet like-minded people,” he says.A term that keeps popping up in interviews was ‘like-minded people’. But given the costs of these clubs and the air of exclusivity, aren’t the velvet ropes still in place? Narain says, “The one word I don’t like is exclusivity, because we are inclusive in a sense. There’s a base of financial criteria, but we’re not very expensive. Other clubs are 10x our price,” he says, adding that their membership is Rs 3-3.5 lakh as a one-time fee and then an annual fee of a lakh a year. “Putting aside the lens of that minimum threshold which takes out 95% of the country — that is the nature of the beast — we don’t care about where you come from but where you’re going.”