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Lateral Sparks, the weekly quiz from YourStory, tests your domain knowledge, business acumen, and lateral thinking skills (see the previous edition here). In this 151st edition of the quiz, we present issues tackled by real-life entrepreneurs in their startup journeys.

What would you do if you were in their shoes? At the end of the quiz, you will find out what the entrepreneurs and innovators themselves did. Would you do things differently?

Check out YourStory’s Book Review section as well, with takeaways from over 355 titles on creativity and entrepreneurship, and our weekend PhotoSparks section on creativity in the arts.

Q1: Customer service

Customer service expectations are very high these days, but contact centre agents are often overburdened, and businesses struggle to offer effective service across channels. What’s a way out of this predicament?

Q2: Healthy ingredients

Many people crave candies, but are unaware of the artificial flavours and ingredients in them. What are some options for a healthier alternative?

Q3: Identity and empowerment

In the fashion industry, many transgender and gender non-binary models feel compelled to hide their identities to secure jobs. How can they be empowered in impactful ways?

Q4: Pre-school education

Not all preschool centres effectively cater to the unique developmental needs of young children. How can such education be made more nurturing, contemporary, and stimulating?

Q5: Corporate gifting

Managers are always on the lookout for attractive corporate gifting options. However, many markets lack price sensitivity, awareness of gifting as strategic engagement, and bulk order inventories. What’s the entrepreneurial opportunity here?

Answers!

Congratulations on having come this far! But there’s more to come – answers to these five questions (below), as well as links to articles with more details on the entrepreneurs’ solutions. Happy reading, happy learning – and happy creating!

A1: Customer service

AI-first automation can help elevate agent productivity as well as customer experience, according to Rashid Khan, Chief Product Officer & Co-founder, Yellow.ai. But legacy systems struggle to manage seamless omnichannel communication.

“Dynamic AI agents, powered by small and large-language models, serve as the first line of defence, handling simple inquiries and freeing up agents for more complex customer interactions,” he explains. Read more here about other AI capabilities like real-time sentiment analysis, auto-suggestions of relevant responses, and appropriate interaction tones.

A2: Healthy ingredients

Mahesh and his wife, Anusha Mahesh Dharam, started Kandee Factory to offer healthier choices in the form of vegan, preservative- and chemical-free candies, marshmallows, lollipops, gummies, and hard candies. Launched in 2013, it supplies to giants like Walmart today.

It refrains from using artificial colours, and uses extracts from beetroot, spinach, turmeric, and flowers. Read more here about how Kandee Factory offers nearly 150 SKUs under different brand names in B2C and B2B categories, priced from Rs 10 to around Rs 329 each.

A3: Identity and empowerment

“Transwomen, especially, spend much of their lives and income trying to fit into a society that often rejects them. This includes their transitioning, beauty and fitness costs that are inherently connected to their health,” observes Rudrani Chettri, Founder of Delhi-based Mitr Trust, an LGBTQ charity.

The organisation has worked with over 50 trans models, and helped many of them break into the entertainment industry with roles and shows. Read more here about their compelling vision of trans people becoming filmmakers, actors, editors, and photographers, leading to empowerment in impactful ways.

A4: Pre-school education

Vijay Kumar Agarwal and Dr. Shalini Agarwal launched Makoons Play School to combine traditional values with modern educational practices. It operates over 250 play school centres in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka.

Its innovative curriculum blends the Montessori method with tech-enabled features such as interactive whiteboards, tablets, AR/VR, and age-appropriate e-learning tools. Read more here about its advancements in making learning more interactive and engaging for children, with a strong emphasis on parent-teacher collaboration as well.

A5: Corporate gifting

Sameer Wahie and Sneh Setu founded Swageazy as a user-friendly enterprise gifting platform that streamlines curation, procurement, customisation, and fulfilment. It makes it convenient for HR and marketing teams to send appropriate gifts to employees, customers and prospects.

Features include dashboard inventory, seamless ordering, bulk storage, and CRM integration. Read more here about how the company has delivered over 100,000 gift packs across 50+ countries for 400 partner clients, in the last three years.

YourStory has also published the pocketbook ‘Proverbs and Quotes for Entrepreneurs: A World of Inspiration for Startups’ as a creative and motivational guide for innovators (downloadable as apps here: Apple, Android).