[Note: This article is part of The Junction Series, being held from January 12-14, 2017. Learn more about The Junction here!]
As the latest industrial revolution promises to bring about a complete transformation of industries and never before seen fusion with technology, identifying new business models needed to master this revolution takes precedence. What are these models, what does the future hold for the next decade of India’s startup ecosystem, these were the few questions which were answered during the second panel discussion at The Junction 2017 – identifying business models needed to master the fourth industrial revolution.
The Junction 2017 is Inc42’s first three days flagship conference being held at the Fairmount Jaipur from January 12-14, 2017.
The Junction is an invite-only gathering, which on the first day of the conference witnessed the presence of 300 entrepreneurs, corporates, investors and government officials.
The panel was moderated by Sid Talwar, VC, Lightbox Ventures included industry most prominent speakers – Arihant Patni, MD, Hive Technologies; Mahesh Murthy, co-founder, Seedfund; Niren Shah, MD, Norwest Venture Partners, and GV Ravishankar, MD, Sequoia Capital.
The copy-paste business model doesn’t work, markets are coming back to India, a lot of opportunities are waiting for entrepreneurs in India , one just needs to tap them, technologies like AI, fintech, bots are overhyped – these were the few points which were raised and discussed by the panelists.
Speaking during the session Mahesh Murthy, co-founder of Seedfund said, “We should understand the market for which we are developing the product. It is necessary for us to get real to tap the untouched market.” Entrepreneurs need to understand that India has a lot of opportunities for them to tap, they only need to identify the gap and fill them.
Talking further, panelists highlighted overhyped sectors like AI, Internet of Things, fintech which will, sooner or later, take away the attention of Indian masses. “Sectors like AI, IoT, and fintech are too overhyped in India. Entrepreneurs think that these sectors are the next big thing but they don’t realise that they need to create products keeping Indian masses in their mind and Indian masses are still struggling to use this technology, efficiently,” added Arihant Patni, MD, Hive Technologies.
The panel concluded with the speakers opining on the paucity of jobs in the future with automation and scaling taking their rightful place in the economy. While the speakers’ opinion was divided, they concluded the session by leaving it to the audience to answer for themselves how the future was going to pan out in terms of availability of jobs.
