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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 52nd 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 too, with takeaways from over 340 titles on creativity and entrepreneurship, and our weekend PhotoSparks section on creativity in the arts.

Q1: Online retail

An effective online retail experience calls for a suitable range of products and price points, attractive yet intuitive design, and seamless payment features. Websites and apps with quick response times also help. What are other factors that improve the shopper experience?

Q2: Fintech success

Spotting a real market gap in financial services is the first step for a successful fintech player. Effective tech solutions based on ML and real-time services are other factors. What are some pressures that fintech players today need to overcome, and how would they do so?

Q3: Digital media

Access to large archives of content, customisation, personalisation, and social consumption have transformed the digital media industry. A lot has also changed with user behaviours and expectations – how are these driving new media opportunities?

Q4: Social impact

The world is full of opportunities and challenges. Reading about organisations that are labouring to make a social impact draws a lot of likes and shares on social media. But what are some ways to help citizens go beyond sympathy to active support?

Q5: Resilience

Risk management and effective planning can help individuals and organisations avoid failure. Accidents that happen along the way can be sources of lessons, but should not be dwelt upon much. However, there are other ways to frame and accept failure and accidents – what are they?

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: Online retail

“The experience after ‘adding to cart’ has also become critical, over the last few years,” observes Atul Mehta, COO, Shiprocket. Over the years, a number of insights have been unearthed about the consumer retail experience.

“If you have reached, say 3-4k orders per month, it is essential to start investing on your post-checkout experience, and how you can improve it further,” Atul adds. Read more on the D2C opportunity and success factors here.

A2: Fintech success

“Relentless focus on innovation and customers made fintechs successful. This should continue. Nonetheless, new muscle needs to be added for newer priorities,” advises Yashraj Erande, Managing Director and Partner at BCG. Many fintechs are facing pressure on demonstrating profitability along with customer acquisition.

“Growing together in partnership with incumbents and private innovation on public utilities will be key moats,” adds Vikram Vaidyanathan, Managing Director at Matrix India. Read more here from the report, ‘State of India Fintech Union 2022’ by Matrix Partners India and Boston Consulting Group.

A3: Digital media

“With the behavioural shift of the digital native audiences, entertainment has transformed across 30-second snackable social videos, OTT shows, casual and AAA gaming,” explains Mayank Yadav, CEO, Rusk Media.

The New Delhi-based company runs social channels Alright! and Playground with over 500M+ monthly views. Read more here about the platform and the OTT opportunity for game developers.

A4: Social impact

“Most of the time, we don’t know what to do or how best to participate beyond posting on social media and making small donations. It shouldn’t be this difficult to get involved,” affirms Aashi Chandna, founder of the platform Project Involve.

It allows people of all ages to contribute to a cause. The platform has gathered over 12,000 unique users from across 60 countries. Read more here about how the platform connects viewers to a partner NGO to provide support.

A5: Resilience

“You will learn over time; you will have to go through rejections, it’s a part of the journey,” explains Esha Shukla, product manager at WhatsApp. “If you really want something, I think not giving up and trying, again and again, is always important,” she adds.

“I think I’ve had a lot of positive accidents through my journey that has helped me move and navigate; I am grateful for all of them” recalls Prerna Mehra, Founder of fashion venture Label Prerna Mehra. Read more of her journey and 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).