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This weekly quiz from YourStory tests your domain knowledge, business acumen, and lateral thinking skills (see the previous edition here). In this 26th 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 330 titles on creativity and entrepreneurship, and our weekend PhotoSparks section on creativity in the arts.

Q1: Retail tech

Digital platforms and transactions have transformed the retail experience. Online payment, chatbots and comparison shopping have made the customer the ultimate winner. What’s another powerful technology that improves the research and sampling experience for customers?

Q2: Customer insights

Strategies for analytics and AI can yield powerful insights into customer behaviour from their social media trails and e-storefront footprints. They help analyse, predict and recommend appropriate courses of action for retailers. What’s another engagement strategy to get better insights?

Q3: Smart ecosystems

Sensors with ever-lower costs are transforming the kinds of real-time data insights available, and enable speedier decisions and responses. AI and ML drive powerful pattern-recognition capabilities as well. What’s another technology that can supercharge the power of IoT?

Q4: The role of mentors

Due to their experience, expertise and empathy, mentors can play a powerful rule in nurturing the next wave of innovators and leaders. They can offer useful frameworks as well as relatable experiences. They inspire founders and broaden their worldview. What’s another crucial function of mentors?

Q5: Knowledge and lessons

There’s a whole wealth of advice in online resources and entrepreneurship networks, on the dos and dont’s of the startup journey. Frameworks and case studies are available aplenty – and yet, many founders seem to be ignoring these lessons and repeating the same mistakes others have made. Why is that, and how can this be avoided?

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: Retail tech

“Through the use of techs like AR and VR, customers can ‘try on’ customised clothing before even placing the order,” explains Bibhuti Dash, Founder and CEO of marketplace platform Louoj.

Emerging technologies have changed the research and purchase experience thanks to virtual tryouts and sampling. This allows people to see and experience how a certain design or colour would look on them. Read more on the custom-fit future of fashion here.

A2: Customer insights

“Understanding conversations and the data and insights derived from them is essential to every business,” affirms Umesh Sachdev, CEO and Co-founder of automation platform Uniphore.

The startup has raised a new round of funding to help advancements in voice AI, computer vision and tonal emotion. Founded in 2008, it combines conversational AI, workflow automation, and RPA with effective UX. Read more its customer engagement journey here.

A3: Smart ecosystems

“5G will enable many new technologies such as AI, ML, IoT, etc. to go mainstream, which are now the privilege of a few, and that will, in turn, create multiple everyday use cases,” observes Abhilash Panda, CEO, DIZO India.

5G will lead to the greater availability and uptake of smart devices, powered by AI and IoT. ‘AIoT’ can also play a critical role in developing the rural ecosystem by offering the same privileges to rural users as urban users, he adds. Read more about 5G impact here.

A4: The role of mentors

“A mentor must be someone who can inspire you, give you brutally honest feedback at times and lift your spirits at other times,” explains Namita Thapar, Executive Director, Emcure Pharmaceuticals.

“A mentor is someone who you deeply respect and want to emulate. Sometimes, it can be a domain expert who can guide you. But a mentor need not be from the same industry,” she adds. Read more about mentorship qualities and impacts here.

A5: Knowledge and lessons

“Founders are often impatient and jump into developing products without doing the necessary customer research, which is where most of the mistakes happen,” cautions serial entrepreneur Shirish Nadkarni, author of From Startup to Exit.

He advises founders to start off with an MVP and pivot till a solution can be found. If the product still fails, the founder should go back to the drawing board and look at adjacent markets where the product could succeed. Get more founder tips 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).