The Tech industry is one of the most booming industries and to be a part of it during such a time is an exciting prospect. Tech Startups play a crucial role in driving forward innovation and shaping our collective futures. Technology Innovations often face numerous challenges when navigating the competitive waters of the technological industry market. Pixel Solutionz, which was once a startup ecosystem, has described some of the most prominent challenges that will be encountered by technology startups, which will be detailed in this blog.

Lack of Proper Funding

Disruptive Technologies often face the major problem of securing adequate funding, as investors are generally hesitant to invest high amounts of capital into startup ecosystems. The development of a compelling business plan and alternative funding options may become beneficial to new and emerging startups, like angel investors, venture capital firms, or crowdfunding platforms. The lack of effective funding may be a major hindrance to emerging technologies becoming mainstream.

Talent Acquisition and Management

Every startup needs to attract and retain top talent in order to build the company from the ground up, however, tech startups face problems finding skilled professionals in such a highly competitive industry. To overcome this obstacle, startups must shift their focus to hiring a small group of talented employees first and slowly sowing the seeds for the sprouting of a positive and attractive work culture that can attract employees to the firm.

Validating market demand for product/service

The Technology Innovation offered by startups must be in line with market demand for the service provided. Startups usually get so excited at the prospect of establishing themselves that they forget to conduct proper market research and gather feedback from potential customers. Failing to identify a proper market for the services or products offered may lead to a waste of time and resources of the company, leading to loss of revenue.

Competitive Industry

The Technological Industry is a highly competitive environment, which is mostly dominated by established companies. The prospect of USP and product differentiation is also quite a herculean task for startups as most customers seek a generalized approach when it comes to technology. This can be mitigated effectively by either achieving marketing success or via the development of competitive advantage via a strong brand identity.

Managing Funds

Start-ups face problems with cash flow during the early stages. Sustaining Operations requires cash, which is detrimental for such businesses. Startups that are pre-revenue usually incur cash burn instead of revenue income, leading to ineffective capital for the business. An effective financial team is thus the elemental part of any successful startup.

Constant Innovation

Disruptive technologies tend to generally take over the market quickly, generating increased levels of demand. As soon as startups find the scent of success in the market, they forget the very basics of business, which is constant innovation. Startups must seek to constantly innovate either their product offering with constant tweaks or increase their product/service portfolio in order to improve their chances of survival in the tech industry. Pixel Solutionz is such an example, which has managed to constantly innovate in order to improve its market offerings.

Regulatory Compliance

Navigating the complex maze of legal and ethical compliance standards can be quite a challenge for startups. Startups operating in the Technical Industry must comply with data protection laws, privacy laws, and general ethical laws. Thus legal counsel becomes mandatory.

Lack of Effective Leadership

As evidenced by the most successful companies in this sector, an inspirational and hardworking leader can help their company achieve new heights of success. However, many startups lack proper leaders which is why they fail to make a mark on the technical world. A leader must possess an excellent vision for the future of the company as well as the drive and hunger to achieve success in the ruthless market.

Neglecting Marketing

Startup Businesses often fail to realize the effectiveness of Marketing. Via effective marketing, startups can establish a large customer base, increase potential interest in their product/service, and also have an increased chance of success in a market where copycat services can emerge quickly.

Scaling Up

Once the demand for a specific product or service increases, most technology-based startups face problems in scaling up operations and handling rapid growth. Business leaders require keen knowledge of organizational infrastructure processes to implement measures of scaling up while reducing disruptions. Such efforts have been the main reason for the continued success of Pixel Solutionz.

Thus technical startups must aim to steer clear of these problems if they want to become a market-dominant force in the future.

The report further states that most of the growth would come from the increasing penetration of international flight and hotel bookings made through online portals such as Cleartrip, MakeMyTrip, and Yatra.  According to Madhur Singhal, managing director of Praxis Global Alliance, combined packages of flight and hotel bookings are a huge hit among Indian consumers.

Praxis said in its report that the number of hotel rooms booked in India, both online and offline, touched 11.4 million in 2016, while the number of flights stood at 99.9 million.

Increased in user demand continues to be a major contributing factor as Indian consumers are expected to devote almost 4% of their wallet spends on travel, in the next decade.

According to Kapil Goswamy, CMD, Bigbreaks.com (a tours and travel dedicated portal), the Indian travel industry is set to grow from $33 billion in 2015 to $56 billion by 2020. Let us take a look at the top 10 travel startups in India.

Top 10 travel startups in India

1. Tripoto:

This Delhi-based start-up, founded by Anirudh Gupta and Michael Lyngdoh believes in the principle of sharing travel-related information. The online travel portal allows users to create itineraries for their upcoming trips can share it with other travelers.

They may share travel experiences, related content and pictures, itineraries, maps, and reviews.  Tripoto, ranked among the top 10 travel startups in India, it connects travelers from around the world to share and discover travel destinations, especially the newer and lesser traveled parts.  

2. SeekSherpa:

Sukhmani Singh and Dhruv Raj Gupta, founded SeekSherpa in 2014. The couple learned about the importance of researching well in advance before traveling, from varied their travel experiences.

The research is better if you get it from a local resident. It is here that SeekSherpa differs from other travel portals. It connects you with the local people in the city you are heading to.

These “sherpas” are chosen after a thorough background check and offer numerous itineraries (popularly referred to as “micro tours”) from sightseeing, photography tours to heritage walks and food walks to explore a location from the eyes of a local guide, aka Sherpa.

A niche offering, SeekSherpa, caters to the specific needs of travelers who love to mingle with local folk, without a qualm. It surely ranks among the top 10 travel startups in India, for its unique concept (much western, yet Indianized beautifully).

3. goMowgli:

Taken from the iconic character of Mowgli (Jungle Book), the travel start-up works in the concept of hop-off the buses, as you travel. An immensely popular concept in the West, goMowgli allows travelers to get down from a bus, and take another bus.

This works best for backpackers or solo travelers, who want to travel without a fixed plan or do not want to get into the glitches of advanced reservations. The travel start-up goMowgli has a fleet of buses across different states in India. Commuters can buy a pass for a fixed number of days (for instance 7 days or 21 days).

All you have to do is to switch on the GPS feature on your mobile or any hand-held device, and goMowgli will tell you the exact location of the nearest bus. Fast growing in popularity, it may well be counted among the top 10 travel startups in India.

4. Oyo Rooms:

Founded by 21-year-old Ritesh Agarwal, Oyo Rooms, has almost become a household name. The Indian travel startup works in liaison with existing hotels and offers vacant rooms for a cheaper price to their customers.

Oyo has also invested in their own properties which start at a nominal price of ₹999. Another segment called Oyo Premium caters to those that want a more-than-basic experience.

The primary reason Oyo Room properties are so hot is that all properties are located in the city primes thus ensuring that you are always close to the best sightseeing and dining options.  

5. Thrillophilia:

Thrillophilia, a Bengaluru-based start-up, founded in 2009, is an online travel marketplace where travelers can discover, compare and book from more than 2500 tours and activities from around 1000 suppliers. What more, travelers can curate the best tours and genuine suppliers.

The best part about Thrillophilia is that it provides handpicked adventure travel options, especially for off-the-beaten-track packages for sight-seeing, sports, and adventure activities, that include activities like white water rafting, snorkeling, bungee jumping and skydiving.  

6. Nearify:

Founded in 2012, the Nearify app is great for travelers new to the city (such as people traveling for business or medical purpose).

Ranked among the top 10 travel startups in India, Nearify provides users with updated information on the city, major tourist attractions, and events happening around them.

The user just needs to key in the name of the city to find listings of meet-ups, workshops, music concerts and cultural hangout zones in their close vicinity.  

7. Travel Triangle:

Travel Triangle, an initiative by Holiday Triangle Travel Pvt. Ltd, is an online platform that offers personalized and best suitable travel packages to travelers across the world.

With a strong network of more than 450 local travel agents spanning over 15+ countries, Travel Triangle, has a secured place among the top 10 travel startups in India.

It offers customized packages for travelers. A full-fledged online marketplace, Travel Triangle allows customers to connect with various local travel agents, get quotations, and even customize their trips and book travel destinations and packages.  

8. Routofy:

Routofy, an online travel portal, has been created on the philosophy of providing users with a unique and visionary travel experience. It combines flights, trains, buses & cabs to provide users a coordinated travel itinerary for their journey.

Ranked among the top 10 travel startups in India, Routofy’s route-planning services allow people to know ‘how to reach’ any desired destination and choose a suitable route based on price, duration of journey & availability.

The Routofy app allows users to plan and book door-to-door travel in one go. Furthermore, Routofy accompanies travelers on their journey through its unique travel assistance feature, which includes a host of unique facilities such as last-minute cab bookings, web check-in, and transport delay information.

Routofy ensures that if your flight is running late, a subsequent cab booking is adjusted to meet you at the new arrival time.

9. iTraveller:

iTraveller, started in 2011 by Shiju Radhakrishnan along with Sanjay Kumar, Chitra Parija and Nisanth Kumar, is an online travel platform for travelers to explore travel destinations, plan and book their trips in advance.

The Bengaluru-based Indian travel startup receives inquiries from clients, allows them to dynamically create self-serviced customized travel packages.

The users can compare reviews and plan their activities and sightseeing for their trips. Furthermore, iTraveller involves native wholesale suppliers who are responsible for the operational aspects of the business that includes ground handling and fulfillment.

More than 2 lakh trips have been created by users on iTraveller, featuring over 20 travel destinations across the globe and 60+ native wholesale suppliers from across these destinations.  

10. Stayzilla:

This premium online travel portal founded by Yogendra Vasupal provides information on stays across India, for all groups of travelers. This includes all sorts of options from ultra-low-budget rooms to luxury stays. Currently, Stayzilla has more than 17000 options spread across more than 1100 cities.

With a capable market research team that studies traveling trends in India, churns out accommodation options even in the remotest corners.

With a strong network of 17,000 hotels, home stays, and guest houses in more than 1200 cities offering rooms in the budget from 250 per night to 60, 000 per night, Stayzilla is working its way to the top.  

Add to want to add more to the list? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.                        

India is well positioned as a startup country in the light of other famous startup scenes such as the US, Israel, Singapore. India’s startup ecosystem has been interacting and collaborating actively with the ecosystems of the aforementioned countries and these synergies have contributed significantly to India’s economy, which currently has a GDP of $2.59 Tn.

ndian Startup Ecosystem: Growth Drivers and Opportunities

Growth in terms of numbers Even though India experienced a brief slowdown in 2016–17, India’s start-up ecosystem is again set for a blooming phase, post-2017. Investments into start-ups have increased by over 100 percent, from $2.0 Bn in 2017 to $4.2 Bn in 2018.

The total number of start-up funding deals especially in the late stages (Series C, D, E, and F) witnessed an unprecedented growth of around 250%, from $847 million in 2017 to $3.0 billion in 2018. Even though the amount of seed stage funding raised stood at $151 million, the larger number of late-stage deals rose sharply, which signifies a renewed investor confidence in the Indian start-up ecosystem.

New players in the startup fray Indian unicorns in the B2C space continue to garner global funds. Many of the newer players are expanding their horizons to other markets stirring up the competitive landscape. Creating a benchmark in the global start-up ecosystem, the year 2018 saw an addition of as many as 8 Unicorns, the highest in a single calendar year.

With the vision of build in India, built for the world, India saw more than 400 cross border start-ups in the year 2018. The disruptive innovation in technology and process is creating newer Indian start-ups and foreign investors are showing immense interest in these start-ups. This has also led to the creation of than 40,000 new Direct Job opportunities and another 4–5 lakhs Indirect Jobs. This takes the total Direct Job base to 1.6–1.7 lakhs.  

Scope and Characteristics of the Indian Market

Growing at an average of 50% year-on-year, most advanced tech start-ups focused on creating solutions in segments like Artificial Intelligence, Analytics, Augmented Reality/Virtual reality, Blockchain and Internet of Things. Startups in these new segments have witnessed a momentous growth in 2018; increase in internet penetration, better infrastructure for digital transactions, Govt.

push on financial inclusion and innovative tech accelerating the pace of payments, lending & digital banking being primary drivers for growth.

You must not miss out on the implementation of artificial intelligence, which is also becoming a norm, growing at 5-year CAGR of 54–58%, witnessing over 120% growth in funding for AI Start-ups ($150 Mn invested in 2018). Also, Blockchain start-ups have seen a significant inflow of funding ($2 -$11 million USD), growing over 500% year-on-year.  

New opportunities for growth, new jobs on the radar In the coming years, we will see as many as 2,000 new startups. Job creation from these entrepreneurs will go up from 65-75k as of today to 250-300k by 2020. New job roles like data engineer, data analyst, data science analyst, will be very much in demand. The Indian subcontinent which is showing significant signs of growth has also witnessed city-wise growth in the years to follow.

The top 6 cities are trusting 90% of the technology scene. Bengaluru and the New Delhi area account for almost 28% and 24% of the startups in India Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune, and Chennai are following in tows. Want to add something? Do you have a story to tell? We would love to hear. Comment below.

India, counted among the emerging markets is a breeding zone for startups. Emerging economies contribute to about 85% of the global population. It is interesting to note that 85% of people (that comes to almost 6 billion) are already grabbed eyeballs of the developed nations.

According to a recent report published by The Economic Times, emerging markets together contribute to about 60% of global GDP. Ever since the financial crisis happened in 2008, these rising economies have contributed more than 80% to global growth.

Increased Internet penetration and ever-increasing smartphone user base are the primary drivers for growth. These have made it easier for new entrepreneurs and app startups to set up businesses.

Entrepreneurs often enter these emerging markets by replicating their developed economy-focused mobile strategy. However, it has been observed that a mobile strategy that shows brilliant results in developed economies seldom works in emerging economies. Indian startups in popular domains like data analytics, artificial intelligence, and blockchain have routinely mopped up angel and seed funding.

Quite a few have even made headlines for their acquisition by global tech giants like Facebook, Google, and Apple. These early-stage success stories naturally inspire more young people to test the waters. In this post, we will focus on the tech startups in India that holds a lot of hope for us.

Challenges The credit card penetration rate: The limited credit card penetration rate in most emerging markets is forcing Indian entrepreneurs to think local. If you are accustomed to receiving digital payments via credit cards, (America has a 71% credit card penetration rate) you need to overcome particularly this monetization challenge.

In fact, you can think of introducing payment methods already prevalent in emerging markets like COD and payment wallets.

Costs involved in accessing mobile data: Mobile data connection in a majority of the emerging markets is unreliable and often costly. Hence, if you are coming straight out of the US where data plans are flexible, cheap and often reliable, focus on how much data usage is effective for making an impact.

Logistics issues need proper handling:  Doing business in emerging markets comes with a lot of challenges, especially for entrepreneurs entering with e-commerce apps. Improper choice of vendors is often a deterrent factor in most cases.

Opportunities Fresh talent for Entrepreneurship Talented students from top colleges are showing interest in joining startups or to start their own ventures. Challenging assignments, ample learning opportunities, and huge funding that brings huge compensation packages are the primary reasons for making startups a very lucrative place and an attractive value proposition.

Also, qualified and experienced mid-level officials are setting up their own business and express keenness to work for startups. Indian and Foreign Investors Making Huge Investments in Startups The Indian startup ecosystem is getting substantial support from foreign and Indian investors, who are ready to invest in Indian markets.

Many of them have full-functional teams in India, while the owners operate from the US or UK. In 2015, India saw almost 300+ active angels and VC/PE players, who carried out more than 300 deals. Various VC/PE investments happened in the expansion stage.

New York-based Tiger Global Management (TGM) is currently the top foreign investor in India, followed by the Russian company- DST Global, Japanese telecom giant Softbank, Kalaari Capital, Sequoia Capital, and Accel Partners.

Government Funds for Startup Firms Increased funding by the Indian government has been a big hope for young entrepreneurs in India. The government has assisted the start-up firms largely, by offering infrastructure support that is helping them perform and sustain both in the domestic and global market.

In addition, the Indian government and semi-governmental initiatives are assisting startups to work on newer technologies like IoT and AI and come up with innovative products.  

Startup India Initiative Launched by the honorable Prime Minister of India, Mr. Narendra Modi, and Start-Up India initiative is a fresh lease of hope for start-up firms and comes out of the jinx of the conventional License Raj of India. The program includes three-year tax and compliance breaks intended for cutting arduous government regulations and red-tapism.

E-biz portal In order to bring down the complexities and obstructions in setting up a business, the Government of India has launched an e-biz portal that integrates as many as 14 regulatory permissions and licenses at one source. The widespread usage of this portal will enable faster clearances and boost startups in India. The challenges of Indian startups are manifold. But it is good to see how several new breeds of entrepreneurs and startups have begun to look at the opportunities beyond those challenges.

All you need is the right strategy for the business. Entrepreneurs need to enter the markets with adequate preparation and confidence and the newly found strategy will reveal a way to escape stagnant demand back at home. At the same time, they need to create new and profitable streams of revenue and find the competitive advantages of your business.    

Batman Delivers Have you felt like you had someone deliver essentials to your house in the middle of the night? No, we are not talking about 30-minute pizza delivery. We are talking about something as essential as your mother’s insulin injection or what if you ran out of your toddler’s formula milk? Here, we have someone to take care of all your needs at unearthly hours.  

All you need to is download the Batman app and place an order. Done? Great. All your nocturnal needs are taken care of.  

PassItOn Being a responsible citizen in you should care for your family and also for others, especially the underprivileged or needy people. PassItOn believes in the principle of sharing is caring and helps you give back to those who are less privileged.

You can give away anything that is of no use to you, but can be re-used by others, such as books, electronics, clothes, home furniture. Simply register and put it on their website.  

Bolt How often have you wondered if you could put your phone on charge, while on road? I am sure we all have, especially when our devices are running low on battery. Well, there’s good news for all of us. Bolt is here to save your day. Advertised as a 2A mobile charger for motorbike, this neat device attaches itself to the handlebars of your bike and also tracks your movements using a special app. Got it?  

Cleartax Filing income tax returns is a must-do activity for all of us, yet we crib at the thought of doing the long and tedious job. Wait, there’s a better way to do it. You don’t have to consult a CA or a tax professional help.

Cleartax does for you, in simpler and better ways. All you need to do is create an account on their website and follow the instructions. The Delhi-based e-filing tax website, a brainchild of Archit Gupta, offers its services to all senior citizens free of cost, the best part.  

Unacademy Education in India has become a business and coaching classes are no more than money minting machines, making it difficult for meritorious students coming from poor families to afford study resources. Unacademy is a pathbreaker.

It provides free online education for students and those aspiring to go for higher studies or crack competitive exams. The user can download online lectures on YouTube by experts with solutions for problems.

Uniphore Uniphore, a 2012 MobiSparks company, co-founded by Umesh Yadav and Ravi Saraogi. The Chennai-based startup aims at extending the power of speech to revolutionize human-machine interaction that will enable any software application to understand and respond to natural human speech.

The company offers solutions for voice biometrics, virtual speech assistant and speech analytics aim to change the way enterprises engage their consumers, build loyalty and maintain a healthy bottom-line.  

Unbxd Unbxd, founded by Sondur and Prashant Kumar, Unbxd’s artificial intelligence (AI) powered plug-and-play solution allows online retailers to capture the 15%-40% in revenue that is lost due to a poor product discovery experience.

The purpose of the platform is to deliver a customized experience to consumers resulting in better conversions. The company claims to power over 1.5 billion shopper interactions a month.    

Have an innovative idea for business? Know of any innovative startup? Want to add more to the list? Let us know.  

• Solopreneurs of today are mostly bright and energetic young professionals (with some years of experience and good academics). They are fast and flexible in their work life and are open to responding to queries outside business hours. These Solopreneurs are also adept at building a reputation of quickness, and promptness that accounts for their popularity.
• Today’s young Solopreneurs are mature enough to define their own visual identity to extricate themselves from being a mere faces in the crowd. Building a concrete brand identity helps create attention and establishes a sense of security amongst clients.
• They are also smart enough to make use of support services for business expansion for creating business identity brandings like customizable websites, email signatures, business cards, and document designs.
• Solopreneurs in India, though young, understand the value of money and also accept the limitations of one’s size and capacity. They are also able to identify their niche areas of work. It helps them focus on providing exceptional service in fewer areas than providing mediocre service in many areas.

We must add to this the ease of doing business with Solopreneurs. It is easier and better for customers and will create traction for the long haul. Simplicity in transacting business is a good customer retention tip since convenience is the preferred choice of millennials. To put it all together, quick, easy, and pervasive are the three magic words for Solopreneurs success. Solopreneurs in India have also woken early to the importance of brand-building of their services. With detailed planning, flexibility, and consistency of service, they are already leveraging their outreach through their website, blog, podcast, record videos, and posts to social media in an effort to provide excellent and memorable customer experiences.        

What is Crowdsourcing?

Crowdsourcing may be explained as the practice of borrowing ideas, knowledge, information or services for business growth. The term “crowdsourcing” may also be explained as a combination of crowds and outsourcing and was coined in 2006 by Wired magazine author Jeff Howe in his article “The Rise of Crowdsourcing.”

Of late crowdsourcing is a term mostly used by enterprises, large or small, to

Crowdsourcing Types

Crowd Contest is a popular form of crowdsourcing. An organization may use a crowd contest to create a killer logo or design. The best one is chosen from among hundreds and thousands of designs and eventually qualifies as the top design. Usually, prize money is paid and the designer might also be offered a full-time contract with the organization.

Companies also use crowdsourcing to seek out an individual who can handle a specific project — a type of crowdsourcing called macro-tasking. Or the entity can seek out many respondents, assigning each one some task or a smaller part within a larger project. This is called micro-tasking.

Another subset of crowdsourcing is crowdfunding, where nonprofit organizations ask for money to cover the costs of an identified endeavor.  Entrepreneurs often make use of crowdfunding to raise funds for their businesses.

The most important area of crowdsourcing is yet to be covered; borrowing of information or ideas. Larger organizations often build up a database with crowdsourced ideas or information. Many brands, especially online education brands owe their growth to intelligent crowdsourcing.

How is Crowdsourcing useful for Business?

Businesses of all kinds have used crowdsourcing to implore ideas and raise money as well as consolidate and promote information. This also allows them to engage with a broader spectrum of sources than they would if they had used employees, suppliers and other traditional sources of expertise via conventional routes of engagement.

• Faster results: The crowdsourcing approach helps businesses to go straight to the market with their design brief and invite a whole community of creative people to submit their unique ideas immediately. In fact, most customers receive their first designs within a couple of hours. This is an early indication of whether the brief is set up correctly and if you have directed the designers in the right way.
• More creative: Large business houses utilize crowdsourcing to tap into the knowledge, skills, and creativity of a massive network of potential brand advocates. Crowdsourcing opens up the design space to a readily available pool of talented creative genius, who is ready to contribute to your brand.
• More collaborative: Crowdsourcing enables you to enjoy a more streamlined process and present a brief that drills down on your key demands. Designers work faster and smarter when there are more competition and less pressure to deliver on a contract. You should provide feedback on the designs you like during the contest, but you are essentially left free to focus on developing your business while the creative elements flow in. What more, you can directly poll your friends, followers, colleagues, and customers online to help you choose the winner. You are also free to eliminate unsuitable designs and request changes from designers you feel are close to nailing it.

• More money-wise: Crowdsourcing utilizes a pool of qualified freelance designers for work, which significantly lowers the costs.

The process also comes with a lot more financial flexibly, as you can set your own budget. The competition between designers means the costs are kept down and you can choose additional features to ensure you get the most designs and best quality for the price.

Crowdsourcing Examples

Crowdsourcing platforms with global communities of filmmakers worldwide have offered attractive rewards for the best videos on a given brand brief, typically awarding cash or other brand relevant incentives. The WWF’s Earth Hour 2017 initiative was a classic instance of crowdsourcing for business advantage.

Celebrating Earth Hour’s 10th anniversary, WWF requested the global video crowd to produce engaging, emotional films about why and how people should act to #changeclimatechange. It provided the perfect formula for doubling organic reach and becoming a powerful vehicle for consumers, activists, and environmentalists to get their messages heard by a worldwide audience.

More than 40 videos were submitted from places like Namibia and Siberia, all with their own unique message.

For Nespresso, was another channel to convey messaging while building brand equity, by focusing on worldwide talent and the particularly the younger audience in the process. Since the younger generation is consuming more mobile content and, most of it is being watched vertically, it was easier to engage them in an online talent hunt.

Nespresso Talents was launched at the Berlinale Film Festival, amplified online with an exclusive content partner with the promise that the three winners’ efforts would be showcased at Cannes later in the year.

Nespresso recorded over 384 submissions from 38 different countries and all of these statistics was available even viewed the entries that the contest had been a success and the varied backgrounds and ideas behind the competitors made it a tough call to judge just three winners.

With 85 million impressions, 1,700 mentions and 99.7% positive sentiment towards the campaign, with no surprise that the press and bloggers fell for vertical format and at Cannes, attracting huge attention and giving the three winners a truly global showcase of their talents.

Nespresso enhanced credentials in film, building on innovation and engaging a wider audience beyond physical platforms. They also validated the emergence of vertical video as a credible medium, completely changing the snobbish attitude that had been prevalent for so long. The vertical films even won the gold medal for mobile content in France’s Online Video Awards.

PixelBenchmarks, for example, an initiative by Pixel Solutionz is an online mock test platform that is growing its question banks by accepting mock tests from teachers, trainers, tutors, tuition providers, and brilliant scholars. The resource providers submit their mock tests and are paid every time a purchase is made by a user.

EducationBengal.in, another initiative by Pixel Solutionz is building an online directory of city-based schools, colleges, academic institutions, coaching centers, and vocational centers. The institutions can list themselves for free and EducationBengal.in makes this information available for use.

Closing thoughts:

While speaking on the future of crowdsourcing, an immense increase in the number of brands that use crowdsourcing across categories is forecasted. also, crowdsourcing will evolve from a ‘take-only’ approach into much more of a two-way communication between brands and consumers.

According to experts you might consider giving your consumers a say in the process, so as to make them feel more connected with the bran. Be transparent and honest with them. I am sure the end result will be better than you expected it to be. The companies that can find a way to do that will have a much more loyal base than the ones which are not.

Today’s brands know they need a library of cost-effectively produced content to keep fans engaged. Turning consumers and fans into passionate brand advocates has so much value, if you can do that while energizing your brand’s content marketing it opens up a whole new world with a lot of promise.

The 2018 Finacial Express Online digs through existing startups in India that excellent valuation jumping anywhere from 2x to 7x in their last funding rounds. Some of these might even turn unicorns in 2019 on the back of high valuations.

As many as eight new startups were catapulted to the hallowed unicorn club in 2018. Fundraising activity in startups again picked up the pace in the year 2018 in mid and late-stage deals, after slowing down in 2016-2017 from the frantic deal-making in 2015 and early 2016. Consequently, eight new startups were catapulted to the hallowed unicorn (valuation of a privately held company at over $1 billion) club in 2018 — the highest number in any year so far. However, the challenges for Indian startups are very much the same, as last year. Here, we take a look at some of the top startup challenges in 2019.

Funding:

Funding continues to be one of the biggest challenges for Indian startups. Earlier banks used to refuse business loans for small ventures. The complex of the loan terms and conditions and endless paperwork often frustrates small business owners. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw’s Biocon too faced funding issues initially.

The situation is improving now. With Angel investment and seed investment, first-level funding (with a small amount) is no longer a big worry. But it getting a large amount of funding is a major challenge, especially in the later stages. Very limited funding is available in forms of larger cheques in India. My thoughts on this are that entrepreneurs should set the goals for the next 5 years before they roll up the sleeves for raising funds.

Government Policies:

India is one of the few developing nations where the government often plays the role of a deterrent in entrepreneurial ventures.

Even though government policies are slowly and steadily increasing, India, by and large, maintains dismal ease of doing business raking as per the World Bank report. Due to a maze of laws and regulations, it takes more of an effort for an entrepreneur to start a business in India than most other countries in the world.

Once you have set up a business, it takes an even greater effort to comply with the sector, department, state, and central laws. The government has taken proactive measures for funding and developing the eco-system, however, we witnessed a slowdown in the start-up space, as there was a dip of almost 50% in the registration of new start-ups in 2016 as compared to 2015; this trend has proved that the policy change has not really given a push to aspirants.

Insufficient Market Research:

An inadequate market is another major business challenge for startups in India. It is very important to know your product/service and your target audience. But it is more important to identify the need for your product. If you can find that, selling your product/service becomes much easier. Know your market, before you start a business. Most startups try to create a product/service that already has plenty of competitors (with better offerings) and overspend on its promotion.

Both naukri.com and shaadi.com were a huge success because the founders identified the need for an online job portal and an online matrimonial site. They understood the need of the mass, and offered them something they have always wanted, but never got.

Lack of Innovation:

Probably the worst of all changes startups face is overdoing the same thing. Most startups in India are afraid of innovation. They are too scared to try anything new or explore unknown territory. But as we know, mediocrity kills. Differential thinking is the first and foremost thing a startup needs to grow as a brand.

Shortage of Talent:

Startups in India or elsewhere need talented resources, more than anything. But this is something difficult to find. Very few people are not willing to leave their well-paid white collar jobs to join a startup.  Skilled talent is hesitant to join start-ups, as they are not often willing to take a risky step, by compromising on their compensation and job security.

Many have witnessed in the past mass firing and downsizing. Also, early stage or pre-series-start-ups have lesser pay than their corporate peers. As a result, most start-ups in a bid to outgrow, hire inadequate talent without processes, and finally end up on the losing side.

Wrong Business Model:

A major cause of startup disappointment in India is an improper business model. New business owners are often so much over-enthusiastic about their product; they overlook the ROI it will bring back. The revenue model is either too complicated for the end users to understand or draws too much from the investor. The business model should be such that maximum return is assured with a reasonable initial investment, without compromising on the quality. The revenue model should be simple and easy to follow.

Despite all the oddities and challenges, Indian startups are growing in number. According to a 2018 Economic Times report, currently, there are 39,000 start-ups (in India), with nearly 5,000 startups being added on a yearly basis.

Make in India, offers an opportunity for the Indian start-ups, especially the non-residential or returning Indians, who want to start something indigenous.  India is a more closed economy as compared to China, and we do have substantial exports to the US, but this will be unaffected, although de-globalization could have an adverse effect on larger corporations who will scale down operations and become more frugal, this would also present opportunities for start-up companies to fill the

Deep Tech startups, especially businesses driven by artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and the Internet of Things saw record funding. The biggest was robotics startup GreyOrange’s $140 million led by Peter Thiel’s Mithril Capital.

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