Fintech, mobility, productivity: Test your business creativity with Edition 12 of our quiz!

This weekly quiz from YourStory tests your domain knowledge, business acumen, and lateral thinking skills (see last week’s quiz here). In this twelfth edition of the quiz, we present five 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 themselves actually did. Would you do things differently?

Check out YourStory’s Book Review section as well, with takeaways from over 320 titles on creativity and entrepreneurship, and our weekend PhotoSparks section on creativity in the arts.

Q1: Fintech impacts

Fintech has helped unleash new markets for financial services startups and large firms, in rural and low-income segments. It also improves livelihood and economic opportunity for the users. What’s another key segment that highlights fintech’s inclusion potential?

Q2: Digital products at scale

Designing digital products or services that can scale well is a key priority for tech and business firms. Usability and consistency of the experience across channels are other priorities. What’s another important requirement for digital products?

Q3: Co-creation

Designing secure, usable, convenient, attractive and desirable products are key goals of every business. But how can businesses go beyond market research and responsive customer service to co-create new offerings?

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Q4: The mobility experience

Ride-sharing for taxis and motorcycles is an effective way for improving mobility in urban markets, for reasons of passenger convenience and efficient use of vehicles. Mass-transit trains with smartcard payments are another solution. What’s another transport sector that can be improved with application of technology?

Q5: Worker productivity

Technologies like SaaS workflow platforms, AI, and video-collaboration have made life much easier for office workers. App-based financial tools have been used by SMBs as well. What’s another sector whose productivity can be unleashed with creative use of technology?

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: Fintech impacts

“Historically, owing to their role as homemakers, women have been alienated from both technology and finance,” observes Poshak Agrawal, Co-founder, Florence Capital. Its fintech product is designed exclusively for women.

“Fintech opens doors for inclusion in the financial market by enabling women to take charge of their funds within the comfort of their own space — on their smartphones,” he adds. This includes access to collateral-free microloans, and other benefits. Read more on the compelling fintech potential here.

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A2: Digital products at scale

"One of the key learnings has been to never compromise with operational ease and security while building something,” explains Tulsi Pargain, Staff Software Engineer at Intuit. She was earlier at Infosys, Infinera and Snapdeal.

She highlights the importance for developers and product managers to watch out for security concerns, open APIs, and unencrypted data. Read more on Tulsi’s tech journey here.

A3: Co-creation

Community-led product development is a must-have for businesses desiring customer traction and loyalty, according to Abhinav Arora, Co-founder at Scenes by Avalon. He advises founders to also take up the role of community manager and build trust with the community of users via content or events.

Community members should also converse and collaborate with one another. “You need conversations happening that go beyond your product — that way you can mine real pain points,” he advises. Communities are moats, and can’t be “copied” by competitors. Read more tips and advice from Abhinav here.

A4: The mobility experience

“Buses are India’s #1 form of public transport with 48 percent share of trips,” explains Mohit Dubey, CEO of mobility startup Chalo. It uses GPS and electronic payments in buses to make bus tracking and ticketing easier for passengers, while also reducing revenue leakage and cash management headaches for bus operators.

“Public transport is the backbone to build a larger mobility platform addressing mobility needs at scale,” says Vaidhehi Ravindran, Partner, Lightrock, an investor in Chalo. The startup reportedly handles 20 million rides each month. Read more here.

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A5: Worker productivity

“With more and more industrial workers getting access to smartphones, we see a huge potential in using technology to reimagine workplace processes, and unlock massive value for companies and workers alike,” explains Arpit Dave, Co-founder and CEO, Smartstaff.

The startup’s apps and platforms help industrial workers with information on shifts, payouts, savings, jobs, and communication. Such tools can enhance labour discovery, employment, productivity, and transparency for SMBs, according to Karthik Reddy, Co-founder of Blume Ventures, an investor in Smartstaff. Read more of the startup’s offerings 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).

YourStory’s flagship startup-tech and leadership conference will return virtually for its 13th edition on October 25-30, 2021. Sign up for updates on TechSparks or to express your interest in partnerships and speaker opportunities here.

For more on TechSparks 2021, click here.