In recent decades, startups have made great progress in a number of areas, from software development to entrepreneurship. And what areas will be the most relevant in the next 10-15 years? In what areas is it worth starting a startup? TechCrunch Europe Editor-in-Chief Mike Butcher shared his views with Armenian news website NEWS.am.

Two interesting areas in the spotlight

Mike Butcher said that climate-related technology will be in the spotlight in the years to come, and startups working in that field have a good chance of succeeding, whether they are creating software or hardware solutions.

Improving the efficiency of solar panels and wind turbines, monitoring carbon dioxide emissions, and any other developments in the field of climate - all these, according to Mike Butcher, will be popular and relevant in the coming years, as the situation with climate problems worsens.

Many scientists would agree with this opinion: the famous astrophysicist, author and main organizer of the STARMUS festival Garik Israelyan also believes that our planet is already facing a number of climatic and environmental problems, and these problems will only worsen with the years. Therefore, any projects and developments aimed at solving these problems or at least improving the situation on the planet, will be more than relevant.

Another interesting area that future startups should pay attention to is Web 3.0, cryptocurrencies, and blockchains. According to Butcher, crypto and blockchains are likely to be used as the underlying infrastructure, rather than the cryptocurrency we often hear about in the news today. Either way, this area seems very promising to the specialist.

Competition

Choosing a relevant field for your startup is not all it takes to succeed. After all, there will be other companies operating in the same field, and it will often be difficult to compete with them, especially if they are corporations with great opportunities and resources that startups do not have.

So how do you stand to this competition and find your place in the market?

According to Butcher, small startups can compete with big companies if they can make quick decisions and act fast, and if they have access to large platforms on which they can build their products.

Global market is the best target

To succeed, according to Mike Butcher, it is also very important to target the global market from day one of a startup. It's a rather bad idea to develop something that only a small group of people can be interested in. The more potential consumers a product has, the more chance it has of finding a sustainable niche in the market and succeeding.

As the specialist said, the most common reason a startup fails is the habit of thinking too "small": if a startup is targeting a local market, it has little chance of success.

He advises to think globally, looking for as many users as possible for products from day one. Only with this approach, can people create really interesting companies.

Anywhere in the world will do

The good news is that today you can create successful startups from anywhere in the world. And Armenia is no exception.

Mike Butcher has already visited Armenia several times, and says he is impressed by the technology industry here.

He said that Armenia has fantastic startup companies like Picsart, Teamable and Krisp that are creating global products and added that Armenia is able to build global technology platforms from cities like Yerevan.

The most amazing technology

In recent decades, a lot of really interesting gadgets have appeared - from smart vacuum cleaners to emotional robots and cars with autopilots - almost like in the movies.

However, Mike Butcher considers smartphone to be the most amazing and interesting invention of recent decades.

In his opinion, smartphone changed all the rules of the technology game in the last few years.

During the Emerge conference in Yerevan, Mike Butcher talked about the Metaworld and how he thinks technology will evolve in the future.

Will we all walk around wearing smart glasses? Will we wear VR-helmets that "augment" the reality around us and finish drawing out new details or new information? It's hard to say yet what exactly is in store for us. But the smartphone, according to Butcher, remains a truly unique development that will not lose relevance for a long time to come.