What is a startup?
A startup is a business idea converted into a prototype on generally a small scale by one or more entrepreneurs in order to provide an innovative product, service, or a better solution to an existing problem.
These business entities are generally motivated by the problems of the end-users or in order to ease a task for the customers.
Funding for such startups can be gathered from personal investments, or angel investors, seed capital, etc. As it is taking its baby steps, it is in constant requirement of funding, new marketing campaigns, and strategies in order to increase its brand identity.
One of the biggest challenges faced by startups is making the services and/or products offered the familiar in the market place and build trust among customers.
Usually, people perceive startups to be a risky investment as they have a higher probability of failure as compared to a grown business unit. But this is not true from the perspective of an angel investor and these are the people who stand with such young entrepreneurs to promote their startups.
It is also evident that the founders in the startup ecosystem generally tend to do a lot of stuff themselves in order to reduce the human resource expenditure.
The people engaged in a startup have to cater to different areas like ideation, product development, business value proposition, marketing business strategies, campaign management, social media marketing, analytics for the response on the campaigns, and other interactive mediums so as to connect with potential investors or customers.
Generally, the core team involved in a startup are closely related or connected to each other either through the place of study, stay, or work.
Examples of Startups:
Unacademy
• Founded by Gaurav Munjal, Hemesh Singh and Roman Saini in 2015.
• A very engaging and impactful educational platform, that has democratized the learning, unites students aspiring to clear the competitive exams, with the top notch educators.
• It has helped many exam aspirants from Tier II and Tier III cities making it the most inclusive learning platform ever.
• It has seen a massive growth recently, now looks to on-board maximum subscribers and increase its category portfolio. It has come up with inspirational sessions of #LegendsOnUnacademy which has witnessed bright minds from different industries worldwide.
• It has recently raised $110Mn in its series E investment and is now valued at $2 billion.
• The future of digital learning and virtual imparting of knowledge is here and Unacademy is already high up the ladder marking a position for itself in the future.
YULU :
• A convenient and environment friendly bike ride amidst the bustling city environment, has been very helpful for the people in Tech Hubs.
• It employs AI and IOT technology to create a vast network of dockless bikes available to people.
• With a strategic partnership with Bajaj Auto, it aspires to reduce the air pollution and the traffic congestion in the cities by rolling out maximum bikes on rents in major cities of the country.
• The journey of the company began with Bangalore, the IT Hub of the country and now is in plans to move its services across to Mumbai and Delhi.
Cure Fit :
• What started as a brainchild of Mukesh Bhansal and Ankit Nagotri in 2016, to provide over all health care ecosystem on an app, stands true to its vision today.
• The idea incubated out of a small office in Bangalore has now reached the door steps of millions across the country in various cities through its virtual workout sessions on its app.
• It operates both offline and online with four verticals , CultFit (Fitness centers); MindFit (Mental Wellness); CareFit (Health care Clinics) ; EatFit (Healthy customized Food Restaurant and delivery services).
• The Startup raised a hefty sum of investment even before its app was launched. It has been endorsed by celebrities from various segments of popularity.
• The company has made sure that they are synonymous with the word “Healthy” in the country. The journey is very inspiring for the fact that it has created for itself a space that would have never been realized by the users otherwise.
• The current valuation of the company stands at Rs 5,490 crore ($732 million), after its last round of Investments.
SpaceX :
• The company as a concept kept moving its pace because of the mastermind behind its success, Elon Musk. His vision for future and his very hardworking nature paved a strong path in this journey.
• SpaceX marketed Dragon 2 positioned its landmark as the most revolutionary Human insights into Space studies, when it recently launched two astronauts into space. That day, very significantly embarks the journey towards future.
• This started as an offshoot to the idea of Musk to launch an experimental greenhouse miniatures with hydrogel packed seeds to test the growth of plants on Martian Soil, otherwise known as “Mars Oasis”. It struck to Musk that without a groundbreaking invention in the rocket manufacturing engineering, the mars life would remain a distant dream, that marks the birth of SpaceX.
• Over the years, Musk has brought in various strategic ventures, technology partnerships to fuel the Startup like the ones including NASA.
• SpaceX is privately funded company, with a few investments from the government institutions to give a form to its Products and technologies.
Airbnb
• An innovative and convenient platform that is dedicated to connect the travelers to various options of accommodation that enriches their experience and makes the stay very memorable.
• What started as an experiment by two designers has now risen to a concept that is alluring and enriching experience among the people of the world. It is the most applauded Unicorn of the Y Combinator.
• From just renting a room in 2007, to a house in 2008, it emerged as a synonym to not just holiday accommodation booking but also for corporate travel, which is the new segment of innovation in the company.
• Their Marketing strategy, "Forget Hotels” and positioning has inscribed the brand’s presence in not just US but across the World.
• Not just on a consumer end, but on the provider’s end as well it has created and monetized the value for its users.
Few more example of startups
