Entrepreneurs step away from routine ideas

Panaji: Goan entrepreneurs are slowly but surely coming up with innovative ideas when they start a company, contrary to perception that startups are usually only about software development or web design.
From monthly subscriptions for Do-It-Yourself projects and online healthcare solutions to e-learning and career guidance, local startups are looking to test new waters and create a niche for themselves.
A cursory glance at the list of entrepreneurs graduating from the Centre for Incubation and Business Acceleration (CIBA) throws up individuals or teams, most of them on the better side of 40 who are willing to risk everything and burn their fingers on out-of -the-box ideas.
Take for example, Ania Singh and Anant Singh, who came up with the innovative idea to provide interested customers with craft supplies and do-it-yourself projects on a monthly subscription basis.
“Today, children usually play with their phones where there is no creative thinking process so these do-it-yourself craft projects will increase their creativity,” Anant Singh said. The company’s products are aimed at students who are 13 years and older, and housewives. The Parra-based couple is attempting a soft launch before ramping up their operations across India, which is likely in the next two months.
Moving away from the hobby market to target core business enterprises, there is Adwait Samel, who began Rightscope Technologies to provide cloud-based customer relation management solutions and online marketing solutions to small scale brick-and-mortar stores and the best part is most of their services are mobile-based.
Too much jargon? This should cheer you. Antonio Osvaldo Alvaro Furtado, a true blue Goan, one fine day had a brainwave and thought to himself, “Why not make Feni from the kernel of a coconut?” If that did not impress you, this should. Furtado designed a mobile application for scratch-n-win coupons which is used across India. So the next time you win a car through a scratch-n-win mobile coupon, remember Furtado.
Right at the bottom end of the age bracket, you have 18-year old Siddharth Shetty.
Going against his parent’s wishes, the Caranzalem resident has delayed his 12th standard exams for the second time so that he can focus on his crowdfunding platform ‘Fundlined’.
The software-as-a-service company offers individuals, startups, established institutions and non-governmental organizations a revolutionary and personalized crowdfunding platform to raise funds for projects.