#BWTechtors: Future Of Tech Start-ups: What Do Experts Have To Say?

BW Techtors associated with BW Disrupt was organized by BW Business World on the 23rd of April, 2021. The virtual summit was organized to discuss the new trends in technology and how they are affecting and changing our workspaces, changing the way of doing business, and as well as our way of life. The day was filled with various panel discussions which were informative and insightful. The last speaker of the day was Mr. Sanjeev Bikhchandani, is a businessman who is the founder and executive vice-chairman of Info Edge. Info Edge at present owns naukri.com which is a portal that helps you to find jobs in almost every field. He is the co-founder of Ashoka University and was given the Padma Sri Award which is the fourth highest civilian award in January 2020. The second speaker of the day was Dr. Ganesh Natrajan, the chairman of 5F World Lighthouse Communication Foundation, GTT. 

Vaibhav Ali: In the book “Stay hungry and foolish” you have mentioned that how you like to share to sell the company shares to the employees working in that organization. Why do you think so?

Sanjeev Bikhchandani: I think you cannot build the company alone, you need your employees and you have to bring in people. In order to build a successful business, you need people who are talented and are good at their jobs hence if you let your employees buy a share of the company they are working for it motivates them to work hard and it brings in a sense of ownership within them, and that does affect the quality of work produced. The recognition you get from the work you do and the wealth you receive needs to be shared with the people who have helped you to gain that recognition and earn that wealth. This is actually a team effort otherwise you cannot build a successful business. 

Vaibhav Ali: In terms of tech what do you think are the gaps or vacuum remaining that needs to be filled? 

Sanjeev Bikhchandani: I think the best ideas for a business comes from the customer you are working for, the customer insight about unsolved problems can really help you build your business. I think the start-ups can use this insight. I think it is a great idea to observe or interact with your customers or potential customers that will help them to find their business idea and also have a better understanding of the market. The future of tech startup is bright, but we need to realize that it is about finding ways to use the technology to help solve problems of the customer which were unsolved in the past.

Urvi: What do you think will be the future of tech start-ups in the covid, pre-covid, and post covid times? 

Sanjeev Bikhchandani: I don’t think we have reached the stage of post covid yet, what we thought as post covid also turned out to be pre-covid. I feel that the future of tech start-ups is very bright, but the technology needs to be used to solve the unsolved problems of the customers, and only then will you be able to build your business and get paid for the service you provide. So it is tech plus the consumer or customer. 

Urvi: What are the challenges the tech start-ups are going to face or they are currently facing?

Sanjeev Bikhchandani: I think you should create technology and make it less complicated and user-friendly for your customers and target group. The technology should be easy enough to be used by the target group. Data protection and data leak are some of the problems and challenges that tech start-ups are facing today. The problem is that it is very difficult to track these people, and therefore, I think we have to spend more on security and don’t advertise our security system, these are very essential. At the moment the only way to protect ourselves is to invest and build a strong security system. 

Urvi: In the future, once the pandemic is over and the lockdown is released do you think these tech start-ups will continue to thrive?

Sanjeev Bikhchandani: Once you know the covid situation is better around the end of the year then these startups will not be gone. Digitalization and the new trends which have come are here to stay. The old way is going to come back but some of these new habits are here to stay. I think there will be a hybrid model where both online and offline will coexist. Remote learning will not go away for sure as various institutions have seen its convenience, but offline learning will definitely not completely go away. 

Dr. Ganesh Natrajan: I think that these virtual meetings are helping us interact with people right now when we cannot go out, but people are missing the physical interaction. The conversations that used to happen at the tea stalls are not happening, and some of the greatest ideas actually came from those informal conversations. AI has actually predicted that the fact that the informal conversations actually produce great ideas, hence I think that when things become a little better these online meetings will continue to exist but we all will definitely go back to meeting in person.