As the social stigma associated with risk-taking recedes, product start-ups are getting quirkier than ever before
Insoles that double up as fitness trackers (bottom left) is among the line-up for Amazon Launchpad.
A
shiny white sphere speaker floating magically above its magnetic base
like a spacecraft hovering above earth. Insoles that double up as
fitness trackers. An automatic
dosa maker. The line-up for Amazon
Launchpad, a curated collection of products from start-ups now
available on the Amazon India website, provides a quick snapshot of
innovators. India head Amit Agarwal says the timing seemed right because
we’re finally more encouraging of risk-taking; the social stigma
associated with it is slowly receding. Product start-ups are quirkier
than ever before.
If you’re a technology writer you may not think these products are
edgy enough to include in your year-end gifting guide (can anything
compete with the latest offering from Bose?). If you’re me, it’s a great
place to see what tech-savvy India is conjuring up for city slickers.
If you don’t care about gizmos and if you’re not from south India,
there’s always the “ready-to-use filter coffee decoction”, also listed
as a unique product from a start-up. If you’re a cynic (you prefer
realist, I know), you believe that the idea and execution of most Indian
tech products continues to rely heavily on China.
You might be occasionally surprised.
Wearable
tech pioneer Ducere Technologies, which produces
Lechal insoles and buckles that can turn your shoes into smart shoes, first experimented
with producing in China. Now their assembly line is based in Hyderabad.
“India is a fantastic place for up to a million units a year,” says
co-founder Krispian Lawrence. “You control your entire item, nobody else
knows what the entire product is and you control quality.”
If
you’re an entrepreneur and angel investor like Sharad Sharma, you will
promptly point out that the real innovation is happening not in your
India (of 50 million families with an household income of more than
$7,400, or about Rs5 lakh) but in another India (of 100 million families
whose annual income lies somewhere from $3,300-3,400 and one that is on
the cusp of entering the formal economy). “This is where the real
action is. Launchpad will be important three years from now when it can
penetrate this other India,” he says. If you dream the digital dream as
Sharma does, connectivity equals creditworthiness equals overnight
access to a virgin market. Here, innovators focus on areas such as
health and education (an inexpensive RO water filter, for example),
because that’s what people want to improve first when they have money to
invest.
If you’re an innovator
creating for urban India, you’re just grateful that someone’s finally
assisting you to get the word out about your amazing-but-unheard-of
product to a large number of people. Since Amazon has tied up with key
groups in the start-up ecosystem, it’s easy enough to qualify if your
product is of a certain standard (and for a monthly fee of Rs5,000). You
must also fulfil other criteria, such as proving to Amazon that you can
meet deadlines.
It’s not easy to
meet deadlines in modern India, especially when your shipment dates
happen to coincide with the early days of demonetisation and the death
of J. Jayalalithaa, the chief minister of the state where you assemble
and test your product. Somnath Meher, co-founder of Witworks, the
start-up that created the smartwatch Blink (with its own operating
system Marvin), recalls the delay when these events occurred in tandem.
He
says that though lots of students tinker and make things, there are no
role models for product start-ups that have managed to scale operations
successfully. “We’re still very service and software driven. Even when
we were raising funds, we were told: ‘You seem sensible enough, why
don’t you solve this last mile problem for delivery? Why do you want to
make products?’.”
Some entrepreneurs
get past this block by telling a story that goes beyond the product.
Vishal Gondal, founder and chief executive officer of GOQii (pronounced
Go-Key), knew that it would be difficult to convince connected Indians
to buy his Made in China fitness band over any other well known brand.
So he offered buyers a personal trainer subscription plan with the
device. “We built a health ecosystem and opted for the service model
over the hardware sale model,” he says.
Amazon
helped Gondal spread the news much before Launchpad, and the newer
start-ups listed are likely to take inspiration from GOQii. Sharma
points out that other recent changes in the start-to-finish cycle have
also helped product start-ups. It’s easier to raise funds now thanks to
the rising popularity of crowdsourcing websites such as Kickstarter. The
growth of the Maker movement across India and the setting up of
fully-loaded tech shops where innovators can prototype their products
and interact with likeminded folks has had an impact too.
Aditya
Agrawal, co-founder of ICE, a company that makes the quirky Ice Orb
Floating Bluetooth Speaker, says they got the idea from friends who were
working with levitation technology. “We began wondering how we could
use this technology differently in making tech products,” he says. The
company launched its product in the US first and it was a favourite
online Christmas gift idea last year. “This is freakin’ awesome,” said
technology YouTuber Lamarr Wilson in his video review.
A
bigger, badder version of this speaker is now available in the US,
where popular Launchpad products include self-cleaning fish tanks, a
contraption that allows you to pour a glass of wine without pulling out
the cork (intrigued?), a toilet bowl with motion sensors that lights up
when you want to go in the middle of the night and a smart pet feeder
that takes charge when you’re not at home. That’s probably the future of
big city innovation everywhere. Meanwhile, I’m just happy that there
are entrepreneurs who want to create for the connected, cynical India
that has access to the best toys. It can only be good for our spirit of
innovation.
