Markets, livelihood, decisions: test your business creativity with Edition 234 of our weekly quiz!
This insightful feature from YourStory tests and strengthens your business acumen! Here are 5 questions to kick off this 234th quiz. Ready?
Lateral Sparks, the weekly quiz from YourStory, tests your domain knowledge, business acumen, and lateral thinking skills (see the previous edition here). In this 234th edition of the quiz, we present 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 and innovators themselves actually did. Would you do things differently?
Check out YourStory’s Book Review section as well, with takeaways from over 355 titles on creativity and entrepreneurship, and our weekend PhotoSparks section on creativity in the arts.
Q1: Creator economy
The creator economy and influencer marketing are booming – but many brands find it hard to efficiently scale campaigns, identify the right creators, and assess campaigns. How can technology help here?
Q2: Artisan livelihood
Many traditional weavers are trained in techniques preserved across generations, but have paltry earnings. How can their livelihood be secured and improved?
Q3: Manufacturing efficiency
Many manufacturers and warehouses suffer from inefficiency and growth blocks due to manual workflow. Where is the entrepreneurial opportunity in improving productivity and scaling operations here?
Q4: Ice cream
Many legacy ice cream brands in India continue to sell traditional flavours, while premium offerings are limited to imports or regional gourmet parlours. Where is the opportunity for a new positioning here?
Q5: Decision making
Many restaurants are awash in data from POS devices, food apps and WhatsApp – but are unable to make realtime decisions to improve business. How can this gap be addressed?
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: Creator economy
Founded by Pranay Swarup and Rohit Raj, influencer marketing platform Chtrbox connects brands with over 300,000 creators. Its data-led system handles discovery, campaign execution, talent management, and live performance tracking.
It matches brands with creators using three broad filters: reach, relevance and resonance. Read more here about its IPO and how it has helped campaign strategy, creator onboarding, paid media amplification, and performance measurement.
A2: Artisan livelihood
Founded by Nivedita Rai and Sourodip Ghosh, Karghewale is helping artisans move beyond low-paid wage work by building their own creative enterprises. Acting as an incubator, it gives them greater control over their craft, income and value chain.
Karghewale offers a 100% advance payment on orders, and 42 of its first 55 artisans have already started their own businesses. Read more here about how it also covers block print and embroideries, and has been supported by Acumen, NextPath Ventures and Hero Enterprises' Bridge Incubator.
A3: Manufacturing efficiency
Founded by Ribin Mathew, Ebin Sunny, Raghu V, and Raj Mohan, Anscer Robotics helps factories and warehouses with automation via intelligent software and robots. Its facility can manufacture more than 1,000 robots annually, supporting its growing global deployments.
“Our goal is to make advanced automation more accessible, scalable and impactful for industries worldwide,” says Mathew. Read more here about how it has received investment from IAN Alpha Fund and Info Edge.
A4: Ice cream
Founded by Tanvi Chowdhri, Papacream is a premium dessert brand blending nostalgia, affordability and innovation. Its numerous flavours include jamun masala, Belgian chocolate, and hazelnut cold coffee.
It also has healthy offerings like vegan, keto and diabetic-friendly options, and uses witty phrases on its packaging as well as a lot of colour to stand out. Read more here about how it is scaling rapidly through dark stores and quick commerce,
A5: Decision making
Founded by Bharat Puppala, Numerize has built an intelligence layer that sits above a restaurant's existing stack. Leveraging AI, it tells operators, in plain language, what is actually happening inside their business.
Its AI agents monitor food cost variance across every outlet and flag an anomaly before owners have even started their day. Read more here about the founding team’s deep industry knowledge, and how it has already helped more than 300 restaurant groups.
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.