Lateral Sparks, the weekly quiz from YourStory, tests your domain knowledge, business acumen, and lateral thinking skills (see the previous edition here). In this 155th 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 actually 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: Patient monitoring
Traditional patient monitoring systems are largely manual and are limited by nurse availability. They also measure only a few vital signs. How can tech improve patient monitoring in such contexts?
Q2: Fashion industry
The fashion industry attracts a lot of glamour, but also generates large amounts of waste. What’s a way to reduce this waste while also creating something meaningful and useful?
Q3: HR tech
Many traditional HR systems are not designed to deliver insights from data; they merely store data and manage processes. What’s a way to break into this product space which is dominated by legacy giants like SAP and Oracle?
Q4: Design and appeal
Many consumers want a sense of modern style in their clothing, but also do not want to give up on traditional attire and heritage design elements. Where is the entrepreneurial opportunity here, and how can it be met?
Q5: Sales support
Many revenue teams, particularly in smaller firms, struggle with securing demos, qualifying leads, and scaling their sales processes. How can tech help here, while also reducing repetitive tasks?
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: Patient monitoring
Dozee, a health-tech company co-founded by Gaurav Parchani and Mudit Dandwate, offers innovative patient monitoring solutions with a contactless, AI-powered approach. It tracks vital parameters such as heart rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure, blood oxygen saturation, and skin temperature by embedding sensors under the patient’s mattress.
“Why limit ourselves to just a few vital signs? We’re captusring hundreds of data points per second” Parchani adds. Read more here about how AI is used to process this information, identify abnormal trends, and generate alerts.
A2: Fashion industry
Paiwand, founded by Ashita Singhal, embraces sustainability by upcycling textile scraps to create appealing new fabrics and garments. Based in Delhi, the studio supports sustainable fashion for B2B clients such as Kardo, The Terra Tribe, Naina Jain, and Nila House.
Paiwand also sells upcycled garments for men and women, such as scarves, tops, dresses, shirts, jackets, trousers, sarees, and capes. Read more here about how it collects textile scraps from craft clusters, designers, and brands, and then uses traditional handloom weaving and embroidery techniques.
A3: HR tech
Founded in 2015 by Chaitanya Peddi, Rohit Chennamaneni, and Jayant Paleti, Darwinbox has developed an AI-powered HR tech platform that enables users to make data-driven decisions. Its AI-powered virtual assistant enables employees to get answers via a simple conversation.
Employees can also take actions like giving real-time feedback, raising a query to HR, or giving recognition to a colleague. Read more here about its mobile app, and its payroll platform based on the RIVeR framework—Review, Initiate, Verify and e-approve, Release and Report.
A4: Design and appeal
Launched by Ragini Roy and Shrikant Chandak in 2014, Varanga is an ethnic wear brand that has forged a distinct identity in a crowded market. “We had to find our niche, which led us to focus on blending traditional elements with contemporary designs,” Chandak recalls.
This fusion allowed them to cater to the modern working woman who wanted the best of both worlds—style and tradition. Read more here about how Varanga now generates an annual revenue of Rs 200 crore, serves over 15 million customers, and has women accounting for over half of its workforce.
A5: Sales support
“With the rise of GenAI, we realised it was time to rethink how revenue teams operate,” explains Ashutosh Singh, who co-founded Revrag.ai with Neeraj Gupta and Pankaj Gupta. It has developed AI-powered solutions for Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) and Business Development Representatives (BDRs).
Its AI assistant streamlines repetitive tasks for sales teams such as obtaining account data, people data, buying intent data, and psychographics data. Read more here about how the startup helps speed up initial prospect outreach, scheduling of meetings, and composition of hyper-personalised emails.
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).
