What new opportunities are you exploring in entrepreneurship?

Social entrepreneurship isn’t simply being an ethical business and having a good supply chain. Aligning purpose and profit at the core of your operations is integral to being a commercially sustainable social enterprise. I’ve observed people struggle with striking the right balance both in the daily operations and strategic priorities. Establishing clear guardrails and principles is essential to keeping focused on your dual priorities. Seek out other social entrepreneurs who can share their experience in this growing field. Great organisations for reference include the School for Social Entrepreneurs, Allia (obviously I’m biased), and REDF.

A good example, but not an obvious one, is the FoodTech industry. Improving our food production processes is critical for our sustainability. A “blue ocean” is every entrepreneur’s dream. One of the very first strategies learned in business school is the “Blue Ocean Strategy” – A “sea” that is competition-free and an analogy for undiscovered markets. In the Alternative Protein industry, there is a blue ocean, literally – The field of sustainable alternative seafood. Do you seek for social impact? Did you know that rehabilitation and restoration of the marine ecosystem is one of the 17 goals of the UN sustainability program (SDGs)?

My contribution (and perspective) to social entrepreneurship is a pay-forward movement impacting start-ups in business from coaching and mentoring. I am a firm believer that sometimes, self-starters just need an encouraging word, a pat on the back, a leg up, a sound piece of advice or even help with opening a door to a known contacts. There's so much we all can do by lifting where we stand!

My approach on this topic would be focusing on impact-driven business. I believe in commercial ventures that drive positive change. Working in a company developing snacks that not only taste great but also reflect our dedication to eco-friendly practices and consumer well-being. Entrepreneurship comes with hurdles, especially in the realm of social impact. Challenges should be used as catalysts for innovation. Our sustainable practices and innovative product development strike a balance between profit and purpose. Social entrepreneurship's scalability is its strength. Embracing change is vital in entrepreneurship. Remember, every venture holds the power to create a lasting legacy.

Social entrepreneurs are making a real difference in the world. Most of them have begun using their businesses to address pressing challenges of our time, inspiring others to do the same. But, let's be honest, it's not just about being a social entrepreneur - it's about being passionate about bringing a change. You have to be: - Resourceful. - Innovative. - Mindful. - Empathetic. - Passionate.

One aspect of the E-commerce world that is ripe for disruption is user data: With the privacy changes and the expected deprecation of the 3rd party cookie, 1st party data is going to be key for better understanding marketing channel performance, conversion funnels and overall customer segments. Give it a thought - how are you planning to collect user data?

Probably my favorite subject! E-commerce is revolutionizing entrepreneurship. Its explosive growth, especially post-COVID-19, highlights a major shift towards online business. This trend excites me for its ability to lower entry barriers, offering entrepreneurs vast reach and flexibility at reduced costs. With opportunities ranging from online retail to subscription services, e-commerce opens up a world of possibilities for unique products and services. It’s an ideal platform for innovative entrepreneurs ready to tap into the digital market's potential.

I’m currently exploring advising, mentoring and investing in D2C brands. It’s proving a great way to expand my entrepreneurship horizons, to keep learning, to keep connecting and most importantly to keep enjoying what I do.

Another way to create new business in the e-commerce area, is to add value to specific needs of an online retail experience. Many areas of e-commerce can be interesting for new products and services, like search optimization, storefront design, checkout experience, payment optimization, etc.

In my experience the real time challenges in this industry is quite disappointing. I think this industry has evolved over a period of time in building the relation with end user with technology. There is a lot of gaps to be covered in terms of quality and reliability and security privacy.

Edtech holds immense potential for transforming education. The key to success is to balance technology with a deep understanding of educational needs. Create content that's engaging and accessible, leverage platforms to facilitate learning, and utilize tools like AI effectively. Above all, remember that your ultimate goal is to enhance the learning experience. Education, paired with technology, can truly change the world!

Learning and the access to education is for me a central problem solver for technological unemployment - a term that has been negatively co-noted in the past, as it was linked to technology use for efficiency increases. The consequence was often a displacement of the workers, previously doing the tasks, which are then substituted by machines or autonomous systems. By providing learning opportunities and training for skills rather than job profiles, individuals can prepare themselves for technology shifts impacting their working environment . EdTech in the sense of professionally providing (open) systems to make learning an everyday routine in job execution is then the promising sector, where learning is provided interactive and immersive.

Ideally in Edtech, here are the upcoming trends 1) Hyper-personalized assessments for skills 2) Cohort based learning communities 3) Career incubation centers

Adding games to school is a growing trend in edtech that gives businesses the chance to make learning more fun and useful. Entrepreneurs can make immersive learning experiences that motivate and entertain users while still meeting educational goals by adding game design elements to educational material and platforms. This method works for a wide range of students, from kids to adults, and makes it possible to create games, apps, and systems that make learning languages, coding, soft skills, and other topics more fun and interactive. This new way of using technology in schools might be perfect for you if you're interested in how games and learning can work together.

I would like to know if Edtech will change the face of school education . The COVID period proved that conventional methods were not working as well as expected and students are enjoying gamification and VR more than anything else . Let alone the proven efficiency of learning through these methods . Any thoughts on the limitations and drawbacks ? One of course is the lack of social interaction with other peers ! Any thoughts ?

Competition is good. It serves as validation of your target market. If you find yourself in a market without competition, it is more likely that you have made a terrible mistake than that you are a rare genius. Secondly, competition gives you a standard against which to measure and differentiate your offerings. It helps you define what you are doing. Second Mover Advantage is powerful. Observe your competition closely and then seize the high-ground of being better or more affordable (or both if you can) than you competitors. As Sun Tau admonished "If you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; ... if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle."

Here's how, you can survive competition- 📊 Data-Driven Decisions: Use analytics to understand user behavior. ForeignAdmits does this to tailor its CRM layer, making it indispensable for study abroad consultants. 👨🎓👩🎓 Community Building: Establish trust through webinars & educational content, creating brand loyalty. 🤝 Strategic Partnerships: Leverage relationships with banks & service providers to offer a comprehensive suite of services. 🚀 Niche Specialization: Focus on a specific customer segment to become indispensable. ForeignAdmits targets B2B partners in the study abroad segment, filling a critical gap in the market. 💪 Agility: Being small allows for quick adaptation. Use this to experiment with new features or pricing models.

A rising tide lifts all boats. Compare yourself to "the best" and yourself from yesterday. Try and be better than one of those two everyday. The rest is noise.

Do your research to assess the market opportunity, ie, contact potential customers directly or analyse data from third parties. Then consider where your product fits: - new market: there is no similar product on the market yet (eg: SpaceX), this is a « blue ocean ». But will customers buy your product? - existing market, with few players: compete heads on, while showcasing how you differentiate yourself from competition (eg: Lush cosmetics); - existing market, with many players or with a player that has a very large market share. This is a « red ocean ». The strategy is to re-segment this market, by addressing its business model. Eg: — re-segment as a low-cost player (eg, RyanAir) — re-segment by entering a niche strategy (eg, Tesla)

The most frustrating thing can be seeing others copy what you do. Although it's a sign that you're doing well, it can be distracting. I recommend not focusing on competitors copying you, but rather concentrating on improving your customer experience and innovating your own brand.

You surely need a pitch and deck. You also need a BATNA (best alternative to negotiated agreement). That’s your walk away point. Investors bring cash, expertise and network. But they demand shares and board seats. Their goal is have a strong position to take decisions about the company, and to eventually exit to pay back their limited partners. Your goal might be different. You might disagree on the valuation, and want to keep as much control as possible. So great if you get a term sheet on the table. Better if you get two. But find a lawyer who will negotiate the important points for you. And if really the offer doesn’t suit, despite you needing the cash badly, keep looking.

I've never had a problem securing funding when I can prove the impact of my offer, and it matches the impact a prospective funder wants to create. When my offer was built on emerging technology or a novel idea, proof of impact doesn't yet exist. It's why the startup phase is most difficult to fund. In this circumstance, I've found funding in a shared desire to explore new territory. I seek a smaller bite with funders who want the financial impact of early participation and being part of innovation. From this bridge, I build market share and prepare for the next tier of funding where I will then be able to provide the proof funders require.

I have a lot of experience to share about this topic because I spent a lot of time looking for funding, but only to realise you CAN build a business without it. Funding has a lot to benefits but before you go around spending time (trust me it’s A LOT of work, kudos to people who raise money) bootstrapp at a small scale till your figure out your revenue model which is working month on month. And then take a call basis your cost, ambition and dreams whether you need external capital or not.

Funding is crucial for startups to grow. Entrepreneurs can seek funds through bootstrapping, angel investors, venture capitalists, crowdfunding, grants, loans, or accelerators. Choosing the right funding option depends on the business stage and growth plans.

In my opinion, this is the easiest part when you have a solid brand. I recommend when looking for investors, to look at what value they can bring to the table, other than funds.

Regulation, often seen as a hurdle, is actually a gateway to innovation. With 16,672 active tech startups navigating complex laws, the challenge isn't just compliance but how to turn these regulations into competitive advantages. Understanding the intricacies of your industry’s legal landscape not only mitigates risks but also unveils unique market opportunities. Engage with legal experts, harness their insights, and transform regulatory challenges into strategic assets.

With the Indian start-up space only just starting to emerge, the regulatory angle will come up way more often than we expect. With action against PayTM already panning out in front of us, new entrepreneurs will do well to make sure they are within the compliance framework from day dot to avoid any action going into their development and growth phases. Introducing a semi-legal startup to help emergent companies with this sort of work could well be what we're looking for!

I find regulations are the ever worst problematic stuff that hurdles the way to innovative idea and creativity that entrepreneurship would like to bring.

I am not seeing regulation as a pure innovation killer. Technology is not neutral and needs to be regulated: compare it with the engineering and development of engines being used in cars and imagine we wouldn‘t have traffic lights (which is also a kind of safety regulation). Regulation for limiting the technology use to create harm for a group of people can be entirely beneficial, because everything that is still legal to do, is not always legitimate.

Regulations are a fun maze that just needs to be untangled - that's how I prefer to look at it, so it's mentally easier and more entertaining to deal with such a challenge. Lots of times, the government introducing regulations isn't aware of proper business practices and strategies - they aren't entrepreneurs, and that's ok. We are here to help and guide them. Take cannabis legalization (in Canada 2018 or elsewhere) as an example - I remember holding two phones, one with a municipal government and one with federal having those talk to each other and discuss the rules that they each set. As entrepreneurs, we have to be flexible, resilient, innovative, and creative to overcome such a challenge.

Entrepreneurship is an ever expanding field with vast horizons transgressing international boundaries especially in legal process outsourcing industry. We are proud to announce the collaboration with lexlight-lpo.com. Our endeavour is to provide superior outsourced services with tenured international legal minds and fusion of knowledge and experience to deliver. We at lexhawk.com has travelled reasonable journey in this service domain and now partnered with our legal colleagues across the seas forming a formidable alliance with variety of LPO services.

Entrepreneurship is a mindset. It doesn't have any boundaries or a specific field to operate from. This is a school of thought and can be found in various areas such as tech, hospitality, medicine and the list goes on. Having worked in hospitality tech for almost a decade, I am now embarking on a journey within the health tech sector. I believe that being a former doctor, this gives me an added advantage to explore ways to improve patient's well being through use of technology. Entrepreneurship is not only about earning some dollars, it's also about introducing innovative products for the betterment of humanity.

There are two ways for entrepreneurs to start their own business: 1. Capture existing market 2. Invent new market My own entrepreneurial journey was always based on point number 1: capture existing market by doing it better with either a product which clearly has a USP or a better service. Example: pizza delivery company was dominated by big corporates like Domino’s and Pizza Hut. We started Neapolitan gourmet pizza delivery-clear differentiation. After opening 17 sites we sold to the biggest player on the market.

Entrepreneurship is constantly evolving, and new opportunities are emerging pretty fast. Here are a few of the most promising new areas of entrepreneurship people are exploring: 1. The circular economy 2. IoT 3. AI 4. The sharing economy These are just a few of the many new opportunities emerging in entrepreneurship. With so much change on the horizon, it's going to be pretty amazing to be an entrepreneur. The world needs more visionaries.

MedTech and InsurTech (Technology Backed Micro insurance offering) are two sector with great opportunities in all developing economy. MedTech products cannot only could be AI/ML based predictive product but also product which offer immediate solution(Diagnosis) without need of medical expertise. This still may be distant future when we don't need to see doctors anymore. But to some extent, we may still can see that happening with more diagnosis medtech innovation. Technology backed micro-insurance product is another such area where there is big opportunity.