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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 114th 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.

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Q1: Health and food

Research has shown that packaged food made and sold in emerging economies like India is among the unhealthiest worldwide. How can consumer awareness about packaged food be increased, and how can tech entrepreneurship help here?

Q2: Product-market fit

Founders must ensure that the product they are developing meets customer needs and aspirations, and can be marketed with the right unit economics in place. At what stage does product-market fit come into the picture?

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Q3: Tech for weavers

The task of weaving in many traditional communities includes lifting huge weights that causes knee and back pain. This also leaves them unable to weave any more after the age of 40-45 years. How can technology come to the rescue here?

Q4: Content, brands, commerce

Relatable content can play a major role in influencing consumer decisions. Monetising content for brands requires a strong focus on customer needs and genuine narratives. What are other factors that enable content monetisation?

Q5: The fintech opportunity

An estimated 70% of lending is expected to come from outside traditional financial institutions. Fintech is not just for the wealthy but also for enabling financial inclusion. What are some ways of ensuring such broad-based financial growth?

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: Health and food

Xume, founded by Akshaye Jalan, aims to help consumers make better food choices by scoring packaged groceries based on over 60 health parameters and recommending healthier alternatives. Its app enables users to scan the barcode behind a packaged food item and access the ingredients list with their nutritive values.

Xume’s platform has leveraged AI to map one lakh products, 10,000 ingredients, and more than 3,500 brands to assign healthiness scores. Read more here about how Xume wants to be for eating choices what TripAdvisor is to travel and IMDB is to movies.

A2: Product-market fit

“Product-market fit (PMF) isn’t just a milestone but a continuum, constantly evolving as businesses grow. PMF isn’t an end goal. It’s the path,” explains Amit Bansal, CEO of Solv, a B2B ecommerce marketplace for SMEs.

“Product-market fit is about striking the right chord between a potential market and a stellar product,” he adds. Read more here about how product-market fit helps boost sales, customer engagement, and market momentum.

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A3: Tech for weavers

After years of research and experimentation, Sivakumar Modha developed products to ease the physical stress and pain faced by weavers. His approaches use pedal-power and also replace the traditional punch card used in Jacquard-based handlooms with a digital solution.

It took many trials, hits and misses to launch his Modha Tech machine, an electronic jacquard machine that has features like using a pen drive for the images of the weavers’ designs. Read more about his inspiring journey here.

A4: Content, brands, commerce

“Visual media stands at the forefront of effective storytelling, making content the cornerstone of brand development,” says Bharat Sethi, Founder and CEO of Rage Coffee, and a speaker at YourStory’s TechSparks Delhi conference.

Mohit Yadav, Co-founder of Minimalist, is an advocate of building trust and authenticity through user-generated content. Guneet Singh, CEO of Everstylish, advises creation of educational as well as entertaining content. Read more about brands, content and commerce here.

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A5: The fintech opportunity

“Financial inclusion stands as a critical pillar for sustainable economic growth and expansion,” explains Sonia Gupta, Chief Business Officer, True Credits. Innovative products here include microloans, ‘buy now pay later’ options, and payday loans.

Technology has also helped in assessing creditworthiness, via data analytics for evaluating a borrower’s ability and intent to repay. “The focus is not just on serving the urban elite but extending financial services to the underserved, creating a more inclusive and dynamic financial landscape,” says Ramgopal Subramani, Chief Strategy Officer, Perfios. Read more about financial inclusion here.

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).