We are in the midst of a corporate transformation of sorts in India today. With a flurry of start-ups being registered every week, the world is looking towards innovate solutions to solve their problems. These companies have not only revolutionized the way we look at our daily lives, but also the way some of the bigger names are going about their business models. As most of these companies are basing their operations on a bedrock of technology, the possibilities are endless. Of course, start-ups consider this both as a boon and a bane.

In the technology business, one big challenge is competition; as it is fierce, and barriers to entry are relatively low. The changes in the tools at one’s disposal allows for the amelioration of the solutions on a frequent basis. This gives impetus for new players to enter the market. Another problem start-ups often face is finding the right team to execute ideas at supersonic speed. Younger start-ups also face a challenge of validating the value addition of their product. We have seen that only the start-ups that have tried to solve the actual problems plaguing our society have been successful. Overcoming challenges is essential. The general rules I’ve always believed in are – finding a niche market and differentiating from competitors using the ecosystem and social media to set up the right team in a planned way; building on your idea with the help of prototype and customer feedback helps start-ups see the relevance and need of their product.

Start-ups often neglect these and a lot of times, entrepreneurs are not able to strategize on market positioning, assess the size of the market and grasp the potential of their idea. Doing a proper market analysis and having a bird's-eye view of the industry can help entrepreneurs take right decisions. Sometimes what an entrepreneur might be imagining to build might already exist in some other form. Therefore, having an unbiased understanding of the competition is important.

The importance of leveraging new technology trends is ineffable and in the coming days, some of the important trends that we see emerging are:

•    Heavy transition of people from using internet on desktop to mobile.

•   Device mesh where people use different devices like wearables, phones and watches to access information; because people always want to be connected.

•    Ambient user experiences, particularly virtual and augmented reality. This excites me the most as this shows the keenness of people to rely on tech for their day to day activities. For example, users of a real estate platform would like to see all the details of the house virtually before actually visiting the property. It speaks volumes about the power of technology and potential to disrupt highly unorganized sectors like real estate.

As always, the world continues to push the boundaries of the word possible and the future promises a lot of interesting innovations. I believe that the world and the start-up ecosystem is an exciting place to be in and there is a plethora to learn from others success as well as mistakes, as the learning process never stops.