A Different View: Start-up's innovate for a better world

By Ceren Tahtasiz (Solution Architect, Amazon Web Services)

Innovation is defined as “the use of a new idea or method” by Cambridge Dictionary which may sound quite obvious. There are many people out there who find this definition incomplete, including me. Although everyone uses different words to describe innovation, there are 3 common features that are recurring across all:

Innovation is novel, new and creative. It proposes change, introduces something new, breaks the status quo and challenges the established way of doing things.

Innovation is an idea turned into a solution. Everyone has great ideas now and then, but to call it an innovation the idea should be implemented and executed successfully.

Innovation adds value and has a positive impact. A solution needs to be compelling to be adopted by society, therefore it needs to make a positive change. The perceived benefit could be financial, social, cultural or anything in between.

A quick look in our society is enough to see the need for innovation. From education to healthcare, agriculture to banking, we need novel solutions that would impact our lives positively. Unfortunately, in most cases, big enterprises and governments are too slow and rigid to meet constantly changing demands. This is where start-up's come into play - they are agile and flexible which enables them to move fast.

It all starts with ideation. Start-up's see a problem or an opportunity for improvement in our society. They come up with a novel idea and apply it to create a minimum viable solution to test their assumptions. They need to get the approval of the society and validate that their solution is actually adding value to the society. In the start-up language, they need to find their product-market fit. With the feedback they get, they learn, adjust, iterate. Finally they grow, scale and expand. As they expand, they create a greater impact in our society through innovation. That’s how start-ups make our world a better place.