Startup Expo 2017: Innovation is the Driving Factor in Digital Age

Innovation is the key to success in the digital startup ecosystem. Shaili Chopra steered a powerful conversation on how entrepreneurs are transforming tech use for their businesses. Careerguide founder Surabhi Dewra, Pinwi founder Rachna Khanna, Trunkpool founder Priti Singh and Alexander Schlaubitz from Lufthansa came together for a panel discussion. The discussion focused on innovation in tech and digital at the Startup Expo 2017 in Gurugram.

Ed-Tech Industry

Dewra spoke on the challenges she faced with innovation in the Ed-tech industry. She said, “One of the toughest space to be around is in Ed-tech. Especially in education, you need human intervention at every stage and when we talk about helping a few crores of students accessing career advice, it is very difficult to do it in a brick and mortar model.”  

“To overcome problems where advises and mentorship can reach people in the remotest areas, we built up a dashboard. It allows people sitting anywhere have real-time career counsellor mentoring them,” Dewra added.

Dewra also spelt how her venture uses psychometric tests to estimate a students’ interest and aptitude.

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Using Apps for Better Parenting

Rachna then took the conversation forward elaborating how her app helps children and parents understand each other better. On how she engages children to use Pinwi, Khanna says, “Today I think mobile devices and apps are an integral part of a child’s life. We have created a very objective system. Not a cryptic app. It is a five-minute a day kind of thing so if you do it mind fully, it works.”

“We had gone to visit my daughter and as we saw Rolls Royce and BMWs roll into the campus and students going out to eat biryani, we thought ‘wow, that’s a great business idea’,” Priti Singh on 'Uberising' freight

Tech for Transportation

Singh told the story of how she came up with the idea to start Trunkpool which she likes to call “Uberisation of goods”. “Interestingly, my daughter was in ISB Hyderabad and that’s where Uber did their test marketing in India three years back. We had gone to visit her and as we saw Rolls Royce and BMWs roll into the campus and students going out to eat biryani, we thought ‘wow, that’s a great business idea’,” said Singh.

“We went out to talk to many people and realized that we are sitting on a latent need. So Trunkpool became the tech-driven platform connected with various transporters and having free space. And this became a win-win situation for both,” she added.

While tech is where the innovation is doing wonders, the startup ecosystem is also flourishing. Today, one can solve so many problems with a single touch on the mobile. And that is where innovation is leading us.

More Stories by Poorvi Gupta

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