[Startup roundup] A cheat sheet, though not entirely

I am going to cheat a bit today. In our list of five startups that we uncovered this week, I am listing a 59-year-old publishing house at the top.

BPB Publications

It isn’t a startup for sure, but 29-year-old Nrip Jain is playing by the ‘startup book’ to make an old publishing house, BPB Publications, count in today’s tech-driven world.

It is no secret that the books that most Indians read are those that fall under the ‘educational books’ category. From books catering to the K-12 market to computer and information technology, there is a huge market. BPB Publications caters to this.

Find out how the third generation of this family business is rethinking age-old business practice in keeping with the changing times. As Libza Mannan, our Delhi correspondent, writes, “The brand is using the latest technologies to improve operations. From building an interactive website to instantly addressing customer queries to listing books online and adopting digital marketing strategies to expand its reach, BPB Publications seems to be on a path of constant innovation.”

Read the full story here to find out how Nrip is taking a decades-old business online.

Survaider

For people like Nrip Jain and the 3.6 crore MSMEs in India, the challenge of going digital is often based on their ability to remain closely connected to their customers. Bengaluru-based Survaider was started to assist this base plus other startups by helping them aggregate and decode customer feedback to improve their service.

Their SaaS-based product allows startups and enterprises to filter online customer reviews, pick the most valuable feedback, and helps them act on the feedback to improve customer experience.

Though social media marketing is employed by all and sundry today to not only amplify a business’s services or products but also get direct feedback from customers, Survaider Co-founder Tushar Mishra, says, “The process is extremely inefficient because it takes a long time for the concerned person in the correct department to resolve a customer issue, leading to customer dissatisfaction and drop in online ratings.”

Read this startup story written by Mukti Masih, titled, ‘Customer is king and Survaider is helping companies understand what he says’ here.

Reflektion

Now, we all know data is the new oil, and everyone in the internet industry is drilling for it in more ways than one.

Customer data and insights are valuable for all businesses, not just for startups. Here’s another startup that is providing data-led insights for businesses to influence customers at every relevant point of engagement. Reflektion helps them know what to do with the traffic coming to their website.

Here’s the story of Amar Chokhawala, a 42-year-old former employee of Google, who used the best lessons in search, intent, and tracking technologies from his Google days to create Reflektion. Read the full story here, titled: ‘Reflektion uses AI tech to allow businesses to understand and leverage customer intent’.

Starttopia

The co-working space trend is here to stay. Last week, we wrote about a co-working space, StartUp Café started in Gorakhpur, a small town in Uttar Pradesh. It is a trend that real estate businesses are quick to catch on.

Hopefully, such co-working spaces will sprout the seed of tech entrepreneurship deeper into the country.

This week, we wrote about Starttopia, which is based in Bengaluru, already crowded with many co-working spaces. What sets them apart? Writes Vishal Krishna, “At its heart, it is a place for ideas to take shape where entrepreneurs cannot afford more than Rs 5000 a month. Its second business model is to work with large industrial enterprises that want administrative staff to work out of the city and therefore prefer a co-working space.”

Read here how Starttopia’s Co-founder Tina Gupta, a professor-turned-entrepreneur, is turning her passion of teaching entrepreneurship in classrooms to actually see it flourish in real time.

The Good Life Company

As you pick up your evening cuppa to read this, let me tell you about an interesting startup that has found its future in tea leaves.

The people at The Good Life Company believe that the world’s finest teas and blends should be an everyday luxury.

How the two co-founders -- Bhuman Dani and Shariq Ashraf -- met and decided to share their passion for tea makes for a great read in this startup story by Sindhu Kashyap here titled: ‘Ayesha Takia-backed The Good Life Company brings unique flavours to the tea cup’.

I must admit we used a Bollywood celebrity’s name for effect in the title of the story, but you cannot take away the fact that she did invest in the startup. And, just as an aside, there’s something to be said about the 'Complan girl' who started out with promoting energy drinks and has moved to backing tea as a wellness product.

For more startup stories you can click here. And do not forget to write to me ([email protected]) what you think of these startups or an interesting idea that you think can make for a good startup story.