Technopreneurship: A new trend to explore
With young entrepreneurs channelling their business ideas through innovative products and services, start-ups have become a global phenomenon over the last couple of decades. However, in this era of technological advancement, a new form of entrepreneurship has emerged where technology enthusiasts convert their ideas into constructive and successful business ideas. This is called technopreneurship and the entrepreneurs are known as technopreneurs.
What is technopreneurship?
Technopreneurship, as the term suggests, is a blend of the two words ‘technology’ and ‘entrepreneurship’ and simply put together means entrepreneurship in the field of technology. The term originated in the 1990s to define entrepreneurs who start and manage their own technological businesses. It is a process that combines technological advancements with entrepreneurial skills. Technopreneurs offer products or services that are technical in nature.
According to industry experts, technopreneurship “comprises identifying modern technologies and even creation of technological opportunities by the presentation of commercial products and services.”
A technopreneur usually begins businesses with a unique and cutting-edge idea. He recognises current practices and assesses the current needs of the technology market and brings forth his idea to do something new and different. Technopreneurs either upgrade an existing idea or develop products or services that use technical solutions to bring about a significant change in the field of business. It is therefore an innovation on its own that positively affects generations to come.
Successful technopreneurs
Successful technopreneurs are those who are strategic thinkers with a training in professional programming and computer (hardware and software) development and have other relevant skills to succeed in this rapidly changing world.
One of the most popular examples of a successful technopreneur is Travis Kalanick, the founder and former CEO of Uber, who found inspiration when one day he became late for office as his car had broken down in the middle of the road. This is when he came up with the unique idea of calling a cab using an application from any location to your own, while keeping track of it via GPS. We all know what happened next, as Uber took the whole world by storm with its time saving and easy-to-book car feature.
Another world changing technopreneur is Elon Musk, popularly considered as a tech geek and who happens to be the CEO of Tesla, PayPal and SpaceX. Other notable examples are Bill Gates of Microsoft, Sergey Brin and Larry Page of Google, Jack Dorsey of Twitter, Steve Jobs of Apple and Kevin Systrom of Instagram.