Is Your Startup Idea Ready for the NOW Economy?

The world is going digital: connected devices spring up left and right, tons of data are becoming available daily, and consumer relationships are often getting formed and managed via social media outlets. These and other trends send business models into flux all over the world, and the US and China are at the spearhead of this trend.

Successful founders and developers understand that market disruption will continue accelerating and innovation is the only path to competitive differentiation.

People, devices, applications, and ‘things’ communicate, responding and adapting in real-time according to need, context, and preferences.

When you are validating your idea or working on your startup, consider the following trends and analyze if your work will fit into the future environment:

• Connected devices will be everywhere, not only in houses, vehicles, and factories.
• User experience is getting unified: “discover -> buy -> use -> get care” cycle as single touch point across applications and devices.
• The future of computing is at the edge: data crunching will happen on devices that intersect with the real world, not in the cloud. Technology advancements and business need drive this trend.
• Service differentiation will be in the content, not the network. Telco companies see this and make strides in this direction.

Interactions between people, connected devices, and software increasingly influence nearly every dimension of our lives, including transportation, work, social relationships, commerce, and security. Founders must be cognizant of the subscription economy trends to be able to innovate and not to get caught in the shifting business models.

Is Your Startup Idea Ready for the NOW Economy? was originally published in Hacker Noon on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.