Young Entrepreneurs Challenging Status Quo

The co-founder and managing director of Cloudnine, Rohit M.A., took the stage at the third BW Businessworld Young Entrepreneur Awards 2016 on Friday to explain how his company is influencing the healthcare industry.

He said the young company has started delivering 1,000 babies per month with its services and is now present in five cities.

Rohit said, "India is a market where 51 babies are born per minute. We are here to change the way things are done."

Cloudnine has the resources to change the way maternity birth care industry works and help people discover new meaning of maternity care, he said.

Rohit was among the participants at a panel discussion on the topic "Challenging the Status Quo" at the BW Businessworld 3rd Annual Young Entrepreneur Summit & Awards on Friday.

There is no doubt the start-up generation is not only challenging the status quo but also changing the status quo. In every sector, there is disruption caused by the startups.

In the hotel sector, Sidharth Gupta, co-founder of Treebo Hotels, has made is mark.

He left e-commerce company Myntra to pursue his passion.

Gupta said, "We are only 18 months old but we are the third largest hotel chain in India after Taj and ITC. We have more than 200 hotels in 47 cities across the country."

Treebo Hotels seeks to enhance consumer experience. Its objective is to make the stay simple and sorted. The organisation is trying to get rid of poor quality accommodation and focusing on consumer insights, their taste and preferences.

Gupta said: "We are after smart travellers who are looking for nice sleep and that should not cost a bomb. Treebo is changing the standalone unorganised hotel industry with the help of technology."

The disruption has happened in every sector and consumers have always thought they can own the product and services. People never thought there will be another option of renting out the product and services.

That's where RentoMojo and its founder Geetansh Bamania come in. He was working at Pepperfry (which deals in selling furniture online). He was selling the product and also renting it for personal use. That's where the idea came from.

People are attracted to this concept because of the simplicity of using the product and not travelling it with them as a liability, he said.

The products that can be rented include washing machines, bed, TV and along with hundreds of other items.

Fashion as an industry is tough to break with innovation. But FabAlley found the space that was in demand. The brand is catering to the consumers who wants international brands with affordable prices.

"Western wear emerged as a large segment and there is a gap in that segment, it's a tough segment to crack but primarily we are promoting it to the customers who are around 24 to 27 years of age," said Shivani Poddar, co-founder, Fab Alley.

The startup bug has bitten the trade pundits as well. The trader cost are very high and that's where the challenges lies.

Nikhil Kamath, co-founder of Zerodha, says, "There is very little penetration in the financial space. We have over 2 lakh users and we are growing at 100% rate every year."

Zerodha's aim is to simplify this financial space for people.