This weekly quiz from YourStory tests your domain knowledge, business acumen, and lateral thinking skills (see the previous edition here). In this 21st 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 themselves actually did. Would you do things differently?
Check out YourStory’s Book Review section as well, with takeaways from over 325 titles on creativity and entrepreneurship, and our weekend PhotoSparks section on creativity in the arts.
Q1: Sustainability
‘Reduce, reuse, recycle’ is one of the ‘3 R’ mantras of the green movement (along with other ‘Rs’ like refuse and repurpose). But there is one more ‘R’ that fits in here – ‘replace.’ How might that work?
Q2: Beyond the curriculum
Critics have observed that education is much more than the curriculum. It includes soft skills, experiential learning, peer activities, engaging hobbies, and practical experience through internships. But there is one more important factor to ready students for the work life – what is that?
Q3: Mobile adoption
A number of avenues have been explored to make mobile phone usage more affordable. These include layered tariff plans, bundling handset prices with subscription, or designing low-cost handsets. What’s another way to make mobile phones more affordable?
Q4: Digital asset creation
With much buzz on digital transformation and the creator economy, the spotlight is on building talent for digital empowerment. Having a large software developer population helps in this regard. But what are other drivers of digital asset creation?
Q5: Platform economics
The lean startup movement revolves around the development of a minimum viable product (or service). The rise of platforms has introduced disruptive business models in a wide range of sectors. What do platforms need to begin with, and how should they scale up?
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: Sustainability
“The demand for sustainable fashion is increasing tremendously and we see bamboo fibre replacing others due to its performance and ecological benefits,” explains Nihar Gosalia, Co-founder, Mush.
The startup has developed a range of bamboo textile products. Founded in 2018, it sells eco-friendly bamboo textile bath sets, bath towels, and face towels. It aims to replace cotton, polyester and other fibres with bamboo fibres. Read more of this ecological impact here.
A2: Beyond the curriculum
Many high schools are bereft of a structured career guidance setup, observes Prateek Bhargava, who launched Mindler in 2016. The platform provides career guidance through counselling and mentoring services.
Many students are aware of only a handful of career options. “Over the next five years, we hope to train over 100,000 educators to become certified career coaches,” he adds. Read more about these guidance aspects of education here.
A3: Mobile adoption
Founded in 2013, Yaantra repairs and sells refurbished consumer tech products such as smartphones and laptops. “There is a large set of consumers who aspire to own branded devices, but prices are sometimes prohibitive,” observes Prakash Sikaria, Senior Vice President – Growth & Marketing, Flipkart.
This is where Yaantra fits into the picture to make smartphones more affordable. Flipkart, India’s leading ecommerce marketplace, has recently acquired recommerce company Yaantra. Read more details here.
A4: Digital asset creation
“India’s unique strength is its large developer population. Rapidly adding to it now is the low-code / no-code platforms that are democratising digital asset creation,” observes Anant Maheshwari, President, Microsoft India.
India’s large youth population is natively connected and mobile. India can scale the creation of digital assets without necessarily knowing how to code software, according to Anant. Read more about such levels of tech intensity here.
A5: Platform economics
The platform equivalent of MVP could be the core value unit. “To achieve platform scale, focus on increasing the quality and quantity of core value units on the platform,” advises Sangeet Paul Choudary, author of Platform Scale for a Post-Pandemic World.
Examples of such units include videos (YouTube) or articles (Medium). LinkedIn’s core value unit is a connection between professionals; it then scaled up by adding communication, recruitment, sales, and publishing. Read more of platform dynamics 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).
