Platforms, segmentation, AI: Test your business creativity with Edition 239 of our weekly quiz!
This insightful feature from YourStory tests and strengthens your business acumen! Here are 5 questions to kick off this 239th 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 239th 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: Real estate
Real estate management and transactions can be quite complicated given the diverse nature of stakeholders and complexity of interactions. Where is the opportunity for adding transparency and efficiency here?
Q2: Farming
Not many in younger generations are interested in taking up farming as a profession. What can be done to make this sector interesting and viable again for youth?
Q3: AI impact
Many companies are looking for AI services and not just AI products, due to the degree of customisation required. How can this need be met?
Q4: Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity is becoming an important consideration for businesses, ranging from risk assessment to procuring cyber insurance. Where is the entrepreneurial opportunity here?
Q5: Luggage
Luggage has largely been designed with a one-size-fits-all approach, but this is not convenient for many women travellers. How can better design be introduced here?
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: Real estate
Founded by Tanuj Shori, real estate and mortgage platform Square Yards has evolved from real estate brokerage to a fully integrated ecosystem. It offers services across property search, transactions, home loans, interiors, and property management.
It combines data-driven insights, digital tools, and a network of developers and agents to make property dealings transparent, efficient and accessible. Read more here about its residential and commercial property footprint spanning India, the UAE, Australia, and Canada.
A2: Farming
Founded by Shashi Kumar, Akshayakalpa is pioneering sustainable and organic dairy farming practices. “The way farming is imagined in India is flawed. Farming is not imagined as a profession of choice,” he cautions.
He promotes farming as a culture that has been built around people, ecology, soil, vegetation, and animals. Read more here about how his company integrates practices like soil management, beekeeping, backyard poultry, manure production and farm diversification to build resilient farm businesses that customers can visit and learn from.
A3: AI impact
Founded by Anand Kalyanraman and Prithviraj Chatterjee, Nekko has positioned itself as an AI and machine learning services company. It focuses on business process transformation rather than traditional digital transformation.
“Our approach is to rethink and rebuild processes using AI, especially agentic process automation,” Kalyanraman says. Read more here about its TensAI agentic AI framework and computer vision systems that help companies increase direct booking conversions and sales.
A4: Cybersecurity
Founded by Mohit Anand, Sarthak Dubey, Mayank Morya, and Akshit Kaushik, Mitigata is an AI-native startup working on sovereign AI security infrastructure. “Cybersecurity is entering an AI-first era, and resilience will become one of the defining capabilities of the modern enterprise,” Anand observes.
Cybersecurity is not just about technology but also trust and continuity. Read more here about how Mitigata offers solutions for over 800 organisations built around a framework of insure, detect, defend, and recover, and its recent fundraising round from Bessemer Venture Partners.
A5: Luggage
Founded by Meenakshi Vyas and Rashika Nayak, travel gear startup NORI caters to the needs of women travellers with ergonomic cabin suitcases, modular organisers, and colour-coordinated products. It believes thoughtfully designed travel gear for women is an underserved category waiting to scale.
For example, it has lowered its trolley height by two centimetres from industry standards to better suit the average height of women, thereby reducing strain on the elbow and shoulder. Read more here about its foldable totes, its revenue growth, and the recent funding round led by Rebalance.
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.