‘Competition makes you better, even if your competitor wins’: your startup fix for the week

New week, a new dose of inspiration. And who better to take it from this Monday morning than Carlos Slim Helu, better known as the Warren Buffett of Mexico. Carlos Slim, who celebrates his birthday today, started young as an investor - he was just 11 years old.

Born in 1940 and ranked the richest person in the world from 2010 to 2013, the Mexican business magnate believes that all businesses make mistakes, but the “trick is to avoid large ones”.

“If you’re in business, you need to understand the environment. You need to have a vision of the future, and you need to know the past,” he said.

Carlos, who says he always knew he wanted to be a businessman, doesn’t believe too much in luck. “I believe in circumstances. I believe in work,” he said. What about competition? He’s clear on that. “Competition makes you better, always, always makes you better, even if the competitor wins.”

Inspired enough to set out on your own journey? If not, we have more dollops of motivation in this stream of startup stories.

Failing to get your zzzzzzs? Fear not, for new-age mattresses from Wink & Nod are making sure millennials don’t lose sleep over their slumber deficit. Launched by Sandeep Prasad in 2017, this Pune-based startup offers innovative memory foam mattresses covered with bamboo fabric. In the long run, Wink & Nod wants to be an end-to-end sleep products company!

How do you make children future-ready? Rohith KN, father to two children, had one idea: SmartProjects and make-a-thons to make children self-learners. Bengaluru-based startup FutureReadyKids encourages students to self-learn and create real-life, problem-solving toys in line with their school syllabus. What’s more, it also helps children sell the toys they make on Amazon!

Veekshith Rai and Vivek A G became fascinated by digital currency after they graduated as engineers in 2012. They went down a familiar road, working in IT, and soon stumbled upon a huge opportunity in the financial world: managing expenses. Here's how their SaaS platform, Finly, now helps businesses manage and streamline their spends better.

Move over text, hello video. With people across the world embracing videos, companies are realising that they need to leverage this technology to market their products. Enter Hippo Video. Started by three ex-Zoho executives, this startup aims to be a one-stop solution for your video needs.

Hotels the world over have hopped on to the digital bandwagon, some of them but are still dependent on travel portals. No more for RepUp brings SaaS technology to hotels from check-in to check out. Founded by Pranjal Prashar and Vineet C, the startup helps hotels achieve a 20 percent improvement in revenue through experience enhancement and experience marketing.

The first article on YourStory's #StartupBharat series shines the spotlight on innovations from Tier II and III cities and towns across India. Meet Dr Kiran Kanthi of Lifetron Innov Equipments, who has built a portable machine to save newborn babies from dying of jaundice across rural India. The startup is incubated at Sandbox Startups in Hubli, Karnataka.

If trivia is your jam, quiz app Qureka rewards you to stay ahead of the game. The Gurugram-based gaming startup was launched by Shalini Tewari and Kumar Apurva in early 2018 and has garnered 2.5 million downloads so far. The startup has grown from a 10-member team to a 50-member team presently.

Bharat is taking centre stage on the internet. That's why IIT-Bombay alumnus Pritam Roy built a Manch to stage engaging content for internet users of Bharat. Manch is a platform for user-generated content (UGC), which focuses on creating content across video, audio, image, and text formats, in Indian languages.

Now get the Daily Capsule in your inbox. Subscribe to our newsletter today!