6 l ENTREPRENEUR l JULY 2019Ritu Marya
Editor in chief
E-mail me at:
[email protected]I
am beginning to believe that the start-up world feeds
itself on discontent and invariably there are two schools
of thoughts on everything that is created. But that is
also the reason why start-ups break with conventional
thinking at a rapid pace that new and better change is upon
us, sometimes even every day. I was recently speaking at
Techsauce in Thailand and I came across something quite
similar - start-ups that are working on the most ingenious
electric vehicles in the world. Even some auto giants are
tackling the internal combustion engine or ICE from electric
bikes to electric cars and logistic trucks in a disruptive
fashion. The Indian government, too, has already taken a
stand to change 90 per cent of vehicles to EVs in 10 years.
Other governments in Asia, too, have a similar stand.
Undeniably, EV is the next big start-up boom in the making.
Interestingly though I came across another start-up company
that collects and does data analysis on air pollution and
its impact. Its honcho suggested that EVs are not 100 per
cent pollution-free and at best could reduce pollution by
50 per cent less than petrol or diesel cars and that too if
solar energy is used to power them. Given this, does it make
any sense to change every vehicle on this earth to an EV?
Surely, the auto tech industry is in a complete disruption-
to-upgradation mode right from Tesla motors to a prototype
start-up.
Another observation to be noted is a general shift in start-
ups towards B2B business models. For instance, most electric
vehicle start-ups first want to address the B2B market
before they step into the B2C market in a significant way.
It means that consumers would ride in EV cabs before they
ride their own EV automobiles. The same is true for lots of
other technologies too like AI and IoT. The thrust, therefore,
on consumer tech is much less than what it used to be two
years ago. This would translate into two things – there would
be less burn out for start-ups and therefore their possibility
of becoming unicorns will be much faster. Secondly, there
would be bigger tech-MSME partnerships in the next year or
two, which are related to their digital transformation journey.
Our issue focus for this month is on Tomorrow Inc., which
is about young entrepreneurs who are joining the family
businesses and thinking like first generation start-up owners
rather than a third generation family business owner. This
mindset is bringing a big change in the business strategy of
family-owned businesses. Well-educated and well-exposed,
they are leaving the current operations to either their familyCHANGING
THE CHANGE
patrons or existing teams and bringing changes that could
be pivotal for a big leap in the next three or four years.
We reached out to 20 such young entrepreneurs who are
changing the game with their fresh ideas. There are also
stories on how Livspace built a $100-million business
in less than five years, gig economy, OTT, and a start-up
opportunity in biryani, which you cannot miss.
It is also that time of the year when our annual
convention, Entrepreneur 2019, is back on July 17-18 in
New Delhi. This year promises to be bigger and better as
we have a great mix of unicorns, forward thinking CEOs,
influencers, YouTubers, investors and celebrities, who
would all be coming together to enrich the convention.
Also, the highlight of the convention would be the Vertical
Roundtables on Autotech, Proptech, Digital Influencers,
Family Office Trusts, amongst others. We would also have
Start-up Kickoff, where young start-ups could present
their businesses to investors and get great ideas from their
peers on building businesses to scale. More details are
available at http://www.entrepreneurindia.comEditor’s Note