10 Startup Ideas And Domains To Focus On, For Aspiring Entrepreneurs

"If Entrepreneurship was a religion, will Elon Musk be the God of it?"

I start with a reference to Elon Musk and a thought question, because of the sheer influence he has on me to inspire to dream to change the world, and as a reflection of it are born many of the ideas I discuss here.

If you are even a 1% visionary, you must read his journey through the years as an entrepreneur.

And so, one fine morning, I took a piece of paper and started listing out different kind of stuff we are capable of building. Then I went on to think about various problems we as a human species face and how to solve them. I kept adding to the list as days passed by. Here is a compilation of some of those plans, free to be used by anyone in any way they want.

All these ideas are based on my thoughts, observations, past experiences, and knowledge. It is quite possible that some of these ideas are implemented elsewhere beyond my scope of awareness. Some of them may be too ridiculous or impossible to realize at the current stage and some others may be obsolete with better ideas already in the market that I may have missed noticing.

Even so, there is always a scope of improvising and modifying these ideas into something more significant or implement and execute them in a better way than what has already been done. To avoid the article getting too long, each idea is described as a heading and a few sentences answering Why? and How? You can ping me anytime to explore these ideas further!

With that being said, let us get started;

1. Personalized Education System: Most countries have an education system that is obsolete and needs to be refined to meet the current trends. An automated AI based personalized education provider matching the specific talents and capabilities of an individual to a suited curriculum can solve this. Several other add ons can be implemented on top of this.
2. Virtual Reality Based Products: Imagine students from across the globe attend a university with the best professors from across the world and interact in real time, all from the comfort of their home. An educational institute that completely exists in virtual space, taking advantage of virtual reality-based technologies. How far are we from creating it? Similar VR based solutions can be thought upon to disrupt the entertainment and tourism industries. Also, one can think of VR based training programs, for example, to teach humans to drive a car. There is tech out there, but the penetration into the market is very less at the moment providing a good opportunity to compete before any monopoly is established.
3. Robotics and AI based Cook: Cooking is a life skill we all need but hardly anyone has time for lately. An automated AI based cooking system that can deliver a state of art dishes on par with professional chefs, that's something that will definitely be useful.
4. Recipe Creator: Probably a side product of a cooking robot, a program that can analyze millions of combinations of ingredients and other parameters and generate new tasty recipes using deep learning, how about that? Such a product could come in quite handy for restaurants. Remember the worth of the coca-cola recipe? A minute novel combination, and boom, you may have a million dollar food product. One could also start their own food tech and branded restaurant business powered by AI.
5. AI-based HR Recruiter: While I'm aware of some products in the market, I guess there is yet to be an all in one, highly efficient system. Either way, this industry is in the nascent stage and provides a huge opportunity. Imagine if you can build an AI that can take technical interviews of potential candidates and screen them by itself intelligently and dynamically. There are countless advantages and challenges in this, worth another entire article.
6. An Edu-Tech Based Video Game Company: Nothing can compete with a startup based on creativity, provided the founding team onboard world-class talent. Anyone with unique game design concepts can start their own video game company. Adding a layer of innovation to it, how about building special games, that can provide students with a high-quality education. Growing up, I learned a lot more of history playing the Age of Empires games than at school. A cleverly crafted product in this space can be highly engaging and completely transform the education sector.
7. Music As A Service: Generation of music using AI has come a long way. A robust software product that can do this based on clients requirements would be revolutionary to the music industry, essentially replacing, or at the least assisting human talent, increasing productivity by multiple folds. This can very well be achieved with some funding in research and fine-tuning existing algorithms.
8. Surveillance and City Management Solutions: IOT based smart systems can prove to be useful for the government and several other organizations. Smart traffic monitoring and management (everyone knows how huge the traffic and city congestion problem today is!), CCTV systems, accident alert systems, etc are some solutions being tried out at the moment. There is a good scope for increasing efficiency and expanding this solution space.
9. Household and Industrial Robots: Can you build a cheap and useful robot that can be used by a billion people? There are many established companies and startups already working in this direction to capture a future market space that will probably exist in about 5 years or so. There are years of R&D involved and a fine product can be as revolutionary as the smartphone in your hand. Imagine a multifunctional robot integrated with a smart home. It can do household chores, be your security guard, feed your pets when you are out, remind you of your schedule, make you some coffee, monitor your health, assist you in an emergency, and so on, the possibilities are limitless. The real challenge is bringing the production cost down and making it energy efficient. A similar line of products can be built for corporate offices, industries, shopping centers, etc with relevant features applicable in that scenario. One could think of starting up with a unique solution or collaborate with existing startups.
10. Space-Tech Startups: This is an industry to keep a keen eye on. We are in the age of space exploration, and in about 10-15 years or so, this will be the most happening field with humans trying to colonize Moon, Mars, and beyond. The moment you leave the Earth, most of the products built for us here go invalid, simply because they can't be used in space in the same way, and you will also need many more unique innovations to sustain in a constrained environment. Think of the kind of technologies and everyday products we would need on the Moon or Mars. From manufacturing the smallest satellite components, antennas, and efficient energy harvesting systems to the largest transport vehicles or extraterrestrial housing solutions, there is an ocean of challenges to conquer. Maybe now is the time to startup to be a front runner in such tech several years down the line, not to mention, many such innovations will have byproducts that can benefit us here on the Earth as well.

I haven't touched upon the logistics/transport sector here because, off late, many are drifting towards them. Even many of the campus startups at NITT focus on delivery based solutions, of food and other stuff. This is an easy space to enter with proven business models already in operation but a difficult and saturated space to compete with the likes of Swiggy, Zomato, Dunzo, and many more startups already working in this and related fields. I feel ideas like using drones for delivery, or self-driving cars for mobility are good if and only if you can capture the market first in an efficient and cost-effective approach while competing with the big tech giants. If you don't have a masterclass solution and business plan rivaling a multi-billion dollar company at your backyard, entering this arena with hope for a revolutionary miracle will prove to be futile. In fact, such could be the scenario in any industry and with every product.

There are so many more miscellaneous products to discuss, Smarter versions of stuff we see around in our daily lives from a pencil to a door lock or a table, anything can be the basis of innovation.

Nevertheless, the ideas, or how much impossible or difficult something may sound, one thing I can tell for sure, maybe not all humans are born to be entrepreneurs, but all of us can live to be entrepreneurs in our own style, and entrepreneurship is a way of life in itself!

Design a better door handle, and you are an entrepreneur in your own right.

Change the way people use restrooms, and you are an entrepreneur in your own right.

Create a new way of cultivating crops, and you are an entrepreneur in your own right.

It's not always about the success, the money, or the fame, but the way you change the way we exist is what the focus should be on, no matter how tiny it can be.

And lastly, remember that you don't always need to have your own fancy startup to think like an entrepreneur, and to live like an entrepreneur!

So what do you think of these ideas? Wondering why I am sharing all of them openly? Well, I know for a fact, I cannot pursue all of them by myself, or all alone. Together, everyone achieves more!

By the way, do you have any revolutionary ideas or working on one already and looking for collaborators or teammates? Let me know down in the comments!

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This article was first published by me on Medium here.