Technology Entrepreneurship in 2018: A Beginner's Guide

In 2018 and beyond, with smartness being the criteria, India has been witnessing a steady rise in the number of entrepreneurs aiming at making a difference to society through their technical knowledge. The aiding technology aspects in this scenario are futuristic elements viz the Internet-of-Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and Deep Learning. Technology-driven models seemingly fit in well for societal sectors viz healthcare, agriculture, and more to solve problems which not too long ago were considered impossible to mitigate.

Hence, with technology entrepreneurship from the perspective of newbie/budding entrepreneurs being the criteria, Entrepreneur India lists an easy 3 step beginner's guide to go about trying to mitigate societal issues through technology-driven smart models:

Properly identify and analyze problems the smart way

With the Indian society, as a whole, holding immense potential for smart entrepreneurial models, it still becomes vital that the proper pain-points are identified to synchronize with your intended technology model so as to appropriately fit into the societal scheme of things.

"Equipping India's huge population with sanitary amenities is certainly a challenge," and stated Prateek Ahuja who is an independent healthcare consultant.

Now, developing technology-driven solutions so as to take sanitary solutions to even the marginalized sectors in India is a potential opportunity for you to develop smart models around. Even this falls under the ambit of Indian healthcare; healthcare could be considered as a pain-point and your solutions have an opportunity to find acceptance into the societal scheme of things. Likewise there are other potential domains as well.

"Time is now ripe for B2B models in healthcare; identification of health outcomes is the need of the hour," adds Prasanth Madavana who is Co-Founder at Fedo.

Here, the takeaway is effective identification of the micro opportunities; which more often than not tend to get masked by the macro aspects while technology entrepreneurs go about developing smart models. Hence, when properly identified and analysed, the most potential of sectors (opportunities) would automatically come to the fore.

Seek "potential" investors in 2018

AT this juncture, it is worth remembering that 2018 has been, and is, the year of smart venture capital (and angel) investments. Creative models have been approached proactively by VCs and then funded. This is only bound to grow with time. You could therefore study and make a list of the potential VCs and investors you would desire to approach.

""We have been testing the waters in India for some time and have gained valuable understanding of the market. Our portfolio companies have received continuous support from a growing number of strategic partners such as Xiaomi and Alibaba group," informed Jessica Wong – who is Founding and Managing Partners at Ganesh Ventures.

Wong, recently announced Ganesh Ventures which is a cross-border investment fund aimed at bettering sectors in India viz Fintech, travel, healthcare, and others.

You could always consider cross-border ideation as this is potentially bound to give you greater technology exposure; which only becomes imminent in your technology startup.

There are other homegrown VC firms which are actively involved in scouting for brilliant entrepreneurial ideas to mentor and nurture these. Yours, could potentially be the next one that they scout.

"Impact investing is poised for rapid growth with India emerging as a hub for innovative products and business models focused on large development challenges of the country and other emerging markets," says Mukesh Sharma who is Co-Founder and Managing Director at Menterra Venture Advisors.

Ideate smartly

When you have accomplished the above aspects, it is time that you take your ideas to the next level after you have significant output to show. When you think you are ready for the next phase, sit down with your team and come up with ideas that would improve and scale your business monetarily.

This could be in the form of a potential takeover proposal or even mentoring (in case you have the finances to invest in other technology startups). These steps potentially ensure that you stay relevant in the market whilst being known as a technology business thought leader.