'Resist the temptation to be the sixth one in the same sector,' says Ravi Gururaj

Camera: Nataraj

Video Editor: Anjali Achal

Serial entrepreneur, angel investor, mentor, and Co-founder of Frictionless Ventures, Ravi Gururaj, a stalwart in the Indian startup ecosystem, is always surrounded by young entrepreneurs looking for advice in any startup event he attends. Forever willing to help, Ravi often manages to show a different perspective to a problem.

It was no different at the recent MobileSparks organized by YourStory. Always pushing entrepreneurs to challenge themselves, Ravi said they should know whether they are building a business, a product, or a feature? Building just an app requires a different skill set as opposed to building a business that requires another mindset altogether.

Are tech entrepreneurs today taking the easy way out and becoming part of the herd mentality? There are so many hard problems to solve around us be it in sectors like education, health, sanitation, environment, traffic and many more. Giving an example at the panel discussion, Ravi pointed out that for a regular air traveller like him, he could spot so many problems that technology could solve in just the time it took him to board his plane and arrive at his destination. From check-in to check-out, all one should need is just their fingerprint, instead of multiple identifications for the person and her luggage.

Talking about apps, he felt that it just doesn’t make sense to have to search for many things in an App Store just for the one thing you want to download. There are a lot of problems in the app infrastructure that will be solved as time progresses. There is also a huge potential in adding sensory information from outside the device; soon, apps will begin to use different kinds of technology. “Investors will be willing to invest in something that’s two years downstream, especially if it can show them a path,” he said.