Health, AI, growth: test your business creativity with Edition 249 of our weekly quiz!

Lateral Sparks, the weekly quiz from YourStory, tests your domain knowledge, business acumen, and lateral thinking skills (see the previous edition here). In this 249th edition of the quiz, we present issues tackled by real-life entrepreneurs in their startup journeys.

What would you do if you were in their shoes? At the end of the quiz, you will find out what the entrepreneurs and innovators themselves actually did. Would you do things differently?

Check out YourStory’s Book Review section as well, with takeaways from over 355 titles on creativity and entrepreneurship, and our weekend PhotoSparks section on creativity in the arts.

Many D2C brands and MSMEs want to expand beyond their home markets, but face challenges in navigating the complexity of international supply chains. Where is the entrepreneurial opportunity here?

Preventive healthcare is becoming a growing movement, as citizens want to take charge of their own health monitoring and ensure proper lifestyles. How can technology help here?

Many parents face challenges in monitoring their infants’ sleep and ensuring that they get good sleep. How can this problem be tackled?

Many forests are rich in resources and ingredients, but the local communities do not get much market visibility or benefit. How can this gap be filled?

Most of secured MSME and mortgage credit is concentrated in the major cities and towns. How can such financial footprints be effectively extended to the viable businesses in smaller cities and towns?

Congratulations on having come this far! But there’s more to come – answers to these five questions (below), as well as links to articles with more details on the entrepreneurs’ solutions. Happy reading, happy learning – and happy creating!

Co-founded by Dibyanshu Tripathi, Hexalog helps MSMEs with coordinated, end-to-end logistics to increase their competitive positioning. This includes dealing with customs authorities, compliance agencies, freight operators, and warehouse partners.

Positioning itself as a supply chain partner, it orchestrates the entire trade journey rather than managing individual parts of it. Read more here about how business leaders should see logistics as a function that can improve profitability, support growth and strengthen the firm in the long term.

Founded by Mohit Kumar, Ultrahuman is building an interface that can understand the human body continuously and translate its signals into useful intelligence. It enables continuous glucose monitoring, environmental sensing, and an AI-enabled research layer.

Such systems help build a longitudinal view of human physiology rather than mere individual measurements. Read more here about such body-based computing and ambient AI, and the startup’s fundraise from Qualcomm Ventures, Labcorp, Alpha Wave, and Blume Ventures.

Founded by Radhika Patil and Bharath Patil, Cradlewise develops products focused on infant and child sleep. Its smart sleep system combines a crib, contactless monitoring, adaptive motion, and a connected app.

Sensors track movement, sound and sleep state to detect early signs of stirring, and responsive motions then help settle babies. Read more here about the company’s range of childcare solutions and its fundraise from Sean O'Sullivan Ventures, Footwork VC, and Charles River Ventures.

Founded by Manisha Oraon, Kumar Abhishek and Prateek Toppo, The Open Field combines traditional knowledge, digital platforms, and market access for forest produce. It helps tribal and forest-dependent communities get a fairer share of the value from forest produce.

It uses decentralised micro-processing units across the forest, tools for data and traceability, and a buyer-linked market system. Read more here about how the company has engaged more than 4,500 forest producers, and its use of storytelling to create a market for forest produce.

Founded by Pankaj Poddar, Business Nextgen Finance is focused on secured lending to small entrepreneurs, particularly outside India’s biggest financial centres. Its credit officers assess the underlying business, stock, banking activity, and existing loan obligations.

Field-level checks are used to understand the entrepreneur and collateral. Read more here about the AI-native company’s loans in the Rs 5 lakh to Rs 30 lakh range, and its fundraise of Rs 215 crore in equity capital from investors to scale its MSME lending business.

YourStory has also published the pocketbook ‘Proverbs and Quotes for Entrepreneurs: A World of Inspiration for Startups’ as a creative and motivational guide for innovators.