Loading...
Answers
MenuWhat might be the top startup ideas for 2019?
This question has no further details.
Answers
Let us start at the heart of all start up ideas, what is there a need for that is not currently being supplied or that has not been fully realized upon. When you find a niche that you can supply a demand for that no one else is supplying or that no one can supply in high demand you have found your money maker. A lot of people become successful with startups no one ever thought they would need in life.
The hardest part about a startup is not the idea, the funding or finding the niche. The hardest part of a startup is getting the advertising out there and picking up interest. That's the difference between Nikola Tesla and Benjamin Franklin.
Once you have found your niche bring it to the market in a revolutionary way that will catch investors eyes. Only then will you garner the respect of your peers.
Firstly it all comes from passion within you.
Creating a business is alot of hard work and without the fire of passion burning inside you the chances of making a success is slim at best, regardless what your start up will be.
Your passion will get you through the long days, the frustration, the endless challenges that you have to face and the problems you will need to solve to get the business to launch stage.
Latest data reveals that 90% of startups fail within the first year. Out of the 10% that do only 5% of those last 5 years. Years ago it used to be 70% of startups fail but because of the internet this has shot up to 90%.
So before you even start thinking about startup ideas think deeply about what your passionate about and from there you can come up with ideas based on your passions that solve a problem or need.
I hope this helps you.
Pete Burrows | Creative Consultant
Your most efficient resources are entrepreneurial publications, trend reports, venture capital investment trends and large accelerators such as Techstars and Y Combinator.
2019 is gone, 2020 is about to end and 2021 is coming. So, instead of what might me a great start-up idea let us look at what were the best ideas of 2019:
1. Tableware that turns into soil: After witnessing how heaps of plastic waste wreak havoc on the environment, Mumbai-born Rhea Singhal made sustainable packaging products from plant waste that turn into soil in 90 days.
2. Firing engines with plastic: Paterson Energy perfected technology to produce pyro fuel from waste plastic. Now, the world is buying the pilot project.
3. Brickmaker without a brick kiln: Binish Desai was ridiculed by society for making bricks of paper and chewing gum binder. Undeterred, from a garage in Gujarat and Rs 1,600 in his pocket, he constructed more than 1,000 toilets across rural regions. He ricocheted to limelight and was nominated for Padma Shri for his social endeavour.
4. Making Plastic Green: No country is immune from environmental problems arising from the accumulation of plastic products. One of the major concerns with its usage is that plastic waste takes too long to decompose, further harming the environment, wildlife, and birds. Singapore-based RWDC Industries is trying to do that.
5. Can waste be smart too: From being batchmates in 2002 when Mani Vajipey, was then pursuing a PhD in electrical engineering and Raj Madangopal, a masters in mechanical engineering (robotics) at the University of Delaware, to quitting their job from Qualcomm in San Diego where Mani was working and from a mobile start-up in Seattle where Raj was working - these two masterminds came together to conceptualize Banyan Nation which combined artificial intelligence and advanced technology to build an integrated vertical waste management system where recycled plastic can again have a shelf life.
6. Bottoms up for ‘super’ records: From changing diapers to starting a diaper business, Pallavi Utagi, Founder, Super bottoms, took the traditional route and introduced cotton-based reusable diapers as an alternative to the disposable diaper industry. During three years of diaper usage, a baby uses a minimum of three diapers in a day and close to 3,300 diapers in span of three years. However, only 10-15 of these organic reusable diapers will be required through their growing years.
7. Robotic scavenger scoops out manual woes: His job might be at stake, but that is not a harbinger of doom as manhole cleaning robots Bandicoots now find foot in sewers. Kerala-based Genrobotics specializes in design and development of robotic solutions to address manual scavenging. The company has now gone global with presence in the UAE and plans to extend footprint in other countries too.
8. Howdy smart helmet: Ever wondered if you could breathe fresh air despite being surrounded by pollution? Shaken up by the declaration of Health Emergency in Delhi in 2016, brother duo Amit Pathak and Mayank Pathak of Shellios TechnoLabs came up with an ingenious technology in the form of air purification system integrated helmets to cater to the health of bikers. India, home to the largest motorized two-wheeler commuters with more than 37 million riders, needs this shield.
9. Indulge in playful learning with Miko: An emotionally intelligent robot engages, educates and entertains children in the most conversational manner. What started as a dream project turned out to be a lucrative opportunity for three IIT alumnae, CEO Sneh Vaswani, COO
Chintan Raikar and CTO Prashant Iyengar to launch Emotix. Humanoid robot Miko, which constantly updates its software, can be found in the homes of working parents to virtually take care of their little ones.
10. Getting harder on hard water: Exasperated by the hard water mess, two engineers, Uday Nadiwade and Rajesh Saraf, spent more than a year on research to launch D’Cal, a water-bottle shaped product armed with chemical technology to mask calcium ions and make them inert of forming stains on taps, faucets, mirrors in bathrooms and kitchens. Focused on low-cost water treatment, this device protects house pipeline system and appliances from corrosion.
Besides if you do have any questions give me a call: https://clarity.fm/joy-brotonath
Related Questions
-
What is a good/average conversion rate % for an e-commerce (marketplace model) for customers who add to cart through to purchase order.
There is quite a bit of information available online about eCommerce conversions rates. According to a ton of sources, average visitor-to-sale conversion rates vary from 1-3%. This does not mean the Furniture conversions will be the same. The bigger problem is that visitor-to-sale conversions are not a good data point to use to measure or tune your eCommerce business. All business have some unique friction factors that will affect your final conversion rate. It's very important to understand each of these factors and how to overcome them. The best way to measure and optimize is to take a conversion funnel approach. Once you have defined your funnel you can optimize each conversion rate to better the total effect. For example: Top of the funnel: - All web site visitors, 100,000 / month First conversion: View a product page, 50% of all visitors Second Conversion: Add to Cart, 10% of people who view products Final Conversion: Complete Checkout, 80% of people who put items in a cart In this example we see that only 10% of people who actually view products put them in to a cart, but 80% of those people purchase. If you can figure out why visitors are not adding items to their cart and fix the issue to increase the conversion rate, revenue should increase significantly because of the high checkout rate. You can use free tools like Google Analytics to give you a wealth of information about your site visitor and their behavior or there are some great paid tools as well.
-
Business partner I want to bring on will invest more money than me, but will be less involved in operations, how do I split the company?
Cash money should be treated separately than sweat equity. There are practical reasons for this namely that sweat equity should always be granted in conjunction with a vesting agreement (standard in tech is 4 year but in other sectors, 3 is often the standard) but that cash money should not be subjected to vesting. Typically, if you're at the idea stage, the valuation of the actual cash going in (again for software) is anywhere between $300,000 and $1m (pre-money). If you're operating in any other type of industry, valuations would be much lower at the earliest stage. The best way to calculate sweat equity (in my experience) is to use this calculator as a guide: http://foundrs.com/. If you message me privately (via Clarity) with some more info on what the business is, I can tell you whether I would be helpful to you in a call.
-
For every success story in Silicon Valley, how many are there that fail?
It all depends on what one decides to be a definition of a "success story." For some entrepreneurs, it might be getting acqui-hired, for some -- a $10M exit, for some -- a $200M exit, and for others -- an IPO. Based on the numbers I have anecdotally heard in conversations over the last decade or so, VCs fund about 1 in 350 ventures they see, and of all of these funded ventures, only about 1 in 10 become really successful (i.e. have a big exit or a successful IPO.) So you are looking at a 1 in 3500 chance of eventual venture success among all of the companies that try to get VC funding. (To put this number in perspective, US VCs invest in about 3000-3500 companies every year.) In addition, there might be a few others (say, maybe another 1-2 in every 10 companies that get VC investments) that get "decent" exits along the way, and hence could be categorized as somewhat successful depending on, again, how one chooses to define what qualifies as a "success story." Finally, there might also be companies that may never need or get around to seeking VC funding. One can, of course, find holes in the simplifying assumptions I have made here, but it doesn't really matter if that number instead is 1 in 1000 or 1 in 10000. The basic point being made here is just that the odds are heavily stacked against new ventures being successful. But that's also one of the distinguishing characteristics of entrepreneurs -- to go ahead and try to bring their idea to life despite the heavy odds. Sources of some of the numbers: http://www.nvca.org/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ven... https://www.pwcmoneytree.com/MTP... http://paulgraham.com/future.html Here are others' calculations of the odds that lead to a similar conclusion: 1.Dear Entrepreneurs: Here's How Bad Your Odds Of Success Are http://www.businessinsider.com/startup-odds-of-success-2013-5 2.Why 99.997% Of Entrepreneurs May Want To Postpone Or Avoid VC -- Even If You Can Get It http://www.forbes.com/sites/dileeprao/2013/07/29/why-99-997-of-entrepreneurs-may-want-to-postpone-or-avoid-vc-even-if-you-can-get-it/
-
VCs: What are some pitch deck pet peeves?
Avoid buzzwords: - every founder thinks their idea is disruptive/revolutionary - every founder says their financial projections are conservative Instead: - explain your validation & customer traction - explain the assumptions underlying your projections Avoid: - focusing extensively on the product/technology rather than on the business - misunderstanding the purpose of financial projections; they exist in a pitch deck to: a) validate the founders understanding of running a business b) provide a sense of magnitude of the opportunity versus the amount of capital requested c) confirm the go-to-market strategy (nothing undermines a pitch faster than financial projections disconnected from the declared go-to-market approach) d) generally discredit you as someone who understands how to build a company; for instance we'll capture 10% of our market, 1% of China, etc. Top down financial projections get big laughs from investors after you leave the room. bonus) don't show 90% profit margins. Ever. Even if you'll actually have them. Ever. Instead: - avoid false precision by rounding all projections to nearest thousands ($000) - include # units / # subscribers / # customers above revenue line; this goes hand-in-hand with building a bottom up revenue model and implicitly reveals assumptions. Investors will determine if you are realistic, conservative, or out of your mind based largely on the customer acquisition numbers and your explanation of how they will be achieved. - highlight your assumptions & milestones on first customers, cash flow break even, and other customer acquisition and expense metrics that are relevant Avoid: - thinking about investor money as your money - approaching the pitch from your mindset (I need money); investors have to be skeptics, so understand their perspective. - bad investors; it's tempting to think that any money is good money. You can't get an investor to leave once they are in without Herculean efforts and costs (and if you're asking for money, you can't afford it). If you're not on the same page with an investor on how to run/grow the business, you'll regret every waking hour. Instead: - it's their money; tell them how you are going to utilize their money to make them more money - you're a founder, a true believer. Your mantra should be "de-risk, de-risk, de-risk". Perception of risk is the #1 reason an investor says no. Many are legitimate, but often enough it's simply a perception that could have been addressed. - beyond the pitch, make the conversation 2-way. Ask questions of the investor (you might learn awesome things or uncover problems) and talk to at least two other founders they invested in more than 6 months ago.
-
What are digital products or services you wish existed and why? How would they help you and/or your business?
As the owner of a web development firm, I am always inventing our own digital products and services. Any service that is web-based and accessible to mobile devices work as long as they solve a business need. The digital products I wish would exist are: 1. Home building services including videos by experienced builders 2. Mail and package weighing digital services 3. More security services for document transfer services. Bruce