The era of digital industrialization today has many interesting phenomena that we can see. Starting from the increasing number of digital startup businesses that are starting to grow and develop even in running any business today. Governments around the world also continues to support the boom of the rising numbers of entrepreneurs that utilizes their technological skills thus the creation of the term “technopreneur”.
What is a Technopreneur?
As defined by the Collins Dictionary, “techpreneurs are entrepreneurs who start and manage their own technology business.” The name originated from the year 1990s and a blend of “techno” and “entrepreneur” who takes the calculated risks in the techy world.
The concept of “technopreneur” combines a specialist and a businessman. The specialist understands technology: how it works, how to improve and fix it. An entrepreneur is versed in business: he knows how to find a team, attract investment, package, monetize and promote a product. Having set things in context, Technopreneurship is a new breed of entrepreneurship. To reach the stage in that direction, an aspiring technopreneur must also be able to utilize technology properly and correctly. Good technology means that its use can be useful for people’s activities, so that its use cannot bring a bad impact.
Famous Technopreneurs in the World
A prominent example of a technopreneur is Elon Musk. He generates ideas, deals with the product, attracts funding – he understands everything. To succeed in the technosphere, you need to be technically savvy, can gather financial investments,team player, and be able to test hypotheses and analysis. Another famous example of technopreneur is Mark Zuckerberg with the creation of Facebook. In Asia, the most famous success story is Jack Ma with his founding of Alibaba, the world’s largest retailer and e-commerce company. Having the opportunity to travel to US for a work related visit, it was his first experience to computers and internet and his first internet search is the word “beer”. Pictures of beers from different countries appeared but not anything from China. He then searched the word “China” and not a single word came up then voila! He realized that there is a huge opportunity and it is the high time for China to be on internet. The rest is history.Like the inspirational story of Jack Ma, technopreneurs must also be able to capture the potential of digital business opportunities that are increasingly developing and must be able to adapt to current technological developments.
The Future of Technopreneurship
Experts predict that in the coming decades, labor economics will require just such specialists – equally well educated in technical terms and in business. Young technopreneurs who are motivated for success, understand the needs of technology markets, know how to work in a team, know the basics of business, the intricacies of technological processes, and have fundamental engineering competencies, are able to become the basis of the business of the near future.
As of first quarter of 2020, there are 4.8 billion internet users in the world which is about 62% of the world population. Likewise, the market share of digital technology utilization in the e-commerce sector is growing at an exponential rate worldwide and is getting very dominant compared to traditional market channels, thus paving a way of opportunities for additional thousands or millions of technopreneurs in the coming years.
