Lateral Sparks, the weekly quiz from YourStory, tests your domain knowledge, business acumen, and lateral thinking skills (see the previous edition here). In this 195th 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.
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Q1: Health insurance
For many blue-collar workers, financial and healthcare needs are often overlooked by traditional banking systems. How can technology help meet these needs?
Q2: Interior design
In many emerging economies, the home infrastructure and interior design sector is fragmented and underserved, with consumers and designers facing challenges around quality and efficiency. How can this gap be filled?
Q3: Waste management
The jump in consumer spending and electronic consumption has led to large amounts of e-waste. The waste processing sector is also unorganised, with little standardisation. Where is the entrepreneurial opportunity here?
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Q4: Electric vehicles
Electric vehicles are a growing segment for mobility needs. However, EV users face challenges due to the long charging times, which makes it hard for sectors like last-mile delivery. What’s a good solution here?
Q5: Workflow and culture
Since the times of the pandemic and work-from-home operations, organisations have felt the need for a dashboard to check how their employees are feeling. How can workflow tools be integrated with cultural parameters in such scenarios?
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: Health insurance
Founded by Anshul Khurana, Arpan Jain, and Krishna Yadav, Entitled Solutions is an inclusion platform that aims to make health and financial services accessible to urban low-income workers. It connects employers, financiers, and healthcare service providers, and provides salary advances, personal loans, and health insurance.
The startup creates a digital credit profile of the borrower using employer-sourced data and WhatsApp-based communication. Read more here about how it uses AI to process interaction information, and has already processed around Rs 100 crore in loans.
A2: Interior design
Founded by Dharmil Sheth, Dhaval Shah, and Hardik Dedhia, All Home is an interior design and home improvement platform. It aims to be a one-stop shop for all interior needs by partnering with omnichannel brands.
It spans categories such as furniture, kitchen, wardrobes, furnishings, lights, sanitaryware, and home hardware, with innovative products at competitive prices. Read more here about its plans to solve challenges in the procurement process, including designer coordination and after-sales support.
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A3: Waste management
Founded by Ishita Bansal, Yashraj Bhardwaj, Yuvraj Bhardwaj and Harshi Gilara, Plannex Recycling is a structured, technology-driven platform tackling the unorganised waste sector. It runs over ten integrated waste management centres in India and processes more than 200,000 tonnes of waste annually, which includes plastic, e-waste, tyres, batteries, and solar panels.
It also supports major MNCs and industrial clients with ESG reporting, carbon credit facilitation, and IT Asset Disposition (ITAD) protocols. Read more here about its big clients like Hindustan Unilever, and its growth across corporates, universities, and city municipalities.
A4: Electric vehicles
Founded by Pulkit Khurana and Siddharth Sikka, battery swapping startup Battery Smart offers an alternative to traditional charging, with reduced charging time and higher asset utilisation. This has made it a compelling choice for commercial use cases, especially in sectors like last-mile delivery and shared mobility.
The Gurugram-based company operates over 1,500 battery-swapping stations, and reportedly has a 36% market share in the Indian battery-swapping segment. Read more here about its fundraising for its ongoing Series B round.
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A5: Workflow and culture
Founded by Senthil Kumar Muthamizhan, and Joseph Christopher, CultureMonkey empowers HR leaders and CXOs with real-time employee feedback, culture analytics, and engagement tools to align companies with their people-first vision. It enables global teams to engage and grow across omnichannel workflows.
“We help companies facing problems with the participation rate of their employees,” Muthamizhan says. Read more here about its end-to-end customisable surveys that are multilingual and accessible across multiple employee touchpoints like Slack and MS Teams.
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 (downloadable as apps here: Apple, Android).
