horizontal sparks, weekly quiz from your story, Test your domain knowledge, business acumen and lateral thinking skills (see previous edition Gentlemen). In Quiz #65, we cover the questions that real-life entrepreneurs have tackled while starting a business.
What would you do if you were in their shoes? At the end of the quiz, you’ll find out what the entrepreneurs and innovators have actually done themselves. Would you do things differently?
View YourStory’s book review sections and excerpts from over 350 books on creativity and entrepreneurship, as well as our weekend photo sparks A section on artistic creativity.
Q1: Loan Opportunities
Traditional lending platforms rely on assessments based on credit bureau and bank transaction data. These may work well in many cases, but may be difficult to scale or roll out quickly. What are some good tech-driven solutions here?
Q2: Better marketing
Marketers are always looking for better ways to generate effective content, engage with customers and tailor updates to their target audience. How can technology help in this regard, and what tools have emerged in this context?
Q3: Climate change
The looming threat of climate change calls for greater reliance on renewable energy sources such as solar, wind and tidal power. How can sustainable energy be introduced into transport and how can it be financially supported?
Q4: Fear of failure
A mantra like “fail fast and fail early” is easier said than done. Having a tactical backup plan is one way to deal with failure. But it’s all about mindset — what’s a good mindset to frame, understand and deal with failure?
Q5: Is the customer always right?
Much has been said about finding product-market fit through customer journey mapping, empathy, and addressing needs and desires. Focusing on the “voice of the customer” is key here. But the customer isn’t always right — how should innovators approach them in this case?
Answer!
Congratulations on getting this far! But there’s more—answers to these five questions (below), and links to articles with more details on Entrepreneur Solutions. Happy reading, happy learning – happy creation!
A1: Loan Opportunities
RevFin founder Sameer Aggarwal explained: “In order to create a process to digitally underwrite subprime clients, I tried many ideas such as ego psychometrics, machine learning algorithms and gamification.”
The startup offers drivers financing products for different types of EVs (two-wheelers, three-wheelers, fleets) and has financed over 10,000 EVs across 14 Indian states. Learn more about how to overcome consumer underwriting and product risk with digital identity verification and loan disbursements here.
A2: Better Marketing
Arif Kazi, Founder, Dust Value Media Agency, explained: “In digital marketing, machine learning caters in many ways to a company’s smooth marketing execution by combining data sources, automating tasks and predicting campaign outcomes.”
“Auto-generated content, automated chatbot conversations and custom newsfeeds can be simplified with the help of AI,” he added. Read more about marketing digital tools here.
A3: Climate change
“Electric vehicles are the panacea for sustainable mobility and there is an urgent need for sustained investment in the sector,” explained Ankit Kedia, founder of Capital-A. “To do this, various services need to be enhanced; one such service is battery replacement,” Added Ashvin Chadha, Managing Partner, Anicut Capital.
Both companies have invested in electric vehicle startup Chargeup. “Motor vehicle emissions are going to keep increasing; the only way to reduce and stop that is to have a fleet of electric vehicles,” said Puneet Goyal, co-founder of BluSmart, a start-up that rents, owns and operates electric vehicles. Punit Goyal) affirmatively.
A4: Fear of failure
Marketing and branding expert Karthik Srinivasan, speaking at the DesignUp 2022 conference, explained: “Accepting that one does not know everything, nor does one need to know everything, is a good start to learning from mistakes and failures.”
“Being open to being wrong is another aspect of that humility,” he added. Read more tips for success from this communications consultant, as well as trends in the creative industries, here.
A5: Is the customer always right?
“Listening intently to customers is often self-limiting, if not downright self-defeating. You have to know which customer to listen to, especially when you hear conflicting requests,” Design your thoughts.
“Essentially, when you’re dealing with existing business models and sustaining (read ‘increasingly better’) technology, you’re listening intently to your customers,” he added. Read here to learn how launching disruptive innovation requires listening to your internal voice, not just that of your existing customers.
YourStory also publishes wallets “Proverbs and Quotes for Entrepreneurs: The World of Inspiration for Startups” Your Guide to Ideas and Motivation as an Innovator (downloadable as an app here: apple, android).