Of late, the Internet of Things (IoT) is a much talked about concept. The IoT is simply a mounting network of daily objects - from industrial machines to consumer goods - that can carve up information and complete tasks. This allows companies and mega-corporations to focus their attention on simpler activities, like work, sleep and play, improving the overall quality of life for their employees. Ravi runs an IoT company with his co-founder Andrew Redfern, and he believes IoT is transforming the technology industry. With the ubiquity of programming languages and easier electronics, IoT has made a come-back. With the large sums of data that are being funneled from IoT devices, these dynamic changes have led to the emergence of data science practice to manage the sheer volume of IoT data.

Shifting Data from Social Networking
If there is an evolution of Web 2.0 to Web 3.0, we can see that social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp, are the current data generating platforms when it comes to user generated content. With the advent of IoT devices (in the Web 3.0 infrastructure), there are now devices (versus users) that are generating web-traffic themselves. An important segway is how to take all of that data to the next level. Not so long ago, there were many services that were outsourced to India, Europe,and South East Asia for labor, however; we are seeing more services that utilize machine learning and devices to supplement BPO services.

The Hurdles of Budding Entrepreneurs
We've found in our interviews with multiple founders that entrepreneurs have to face numerous challenges on the road to success, especially with regards to financial accessibility. At one point or another, all entrepreneurs are likely to be overwhelmed with a variety of responsibilities that fall on their shoulders. Many face issues related to building sophisticated tools without finding the value proposition and source of the problem. The common challenges faced by entrepreneurs include overestimating success, misplaced purpose, negative mindset, poor organization, as well as a lack of employee motivation and support.

The above statement is supported by The World Bank's recent report that surveyed micro, small, and medium companies in Georgia to analyze factors that inhibited growth of entrepreneurial and innovative activity in Georgian firms. Many SMEs believe lack of access to financial support is a huge problem. For startup companies, deficient knowledge and technology transfer, limited skills, absence of special government programs in support of entrepreneurship, and innovation are among key factors that constrain their growth and development. Therefore, the creation of attractive investment climates and conducive business environments for new entries and growth of the private sector is vital for sustainable economic growth of the country.

Lessons Learned
Ravi asserts that an entrepreneur's primary job is to consistently mitigate risks involved across the board. The main buckets is to mitigate risks along team risk (can an organization build the product), technology risk (does the product work), and customer risk. Team risk is probably the most important risk that an entrepreneur needs to mitigate. If an entrepreneur cannot find the right people to build their product, all other facets go down the drain. Technology risk is also a tricky bucket, as a startup has minimal time and resources available to build a product. Building the 20 percent that achieves 80 percent of the work is best. The last is customer risk, which Ravi would state is very important. Creating a product offering that users are willing to buy is paramount. (As per an interview with Siliconindia)