The New Evolution of Entrepreneurship and Companies Pushing for Change

Entrepreneurship has undergone a remarkable transformation in the past decade, largely driven by the pace of technological innovation. While entrepreneurship has always involved identifying opportunities and taking risks, the way entrepreneurs start and scale companies today is fundamentally different than ten years ago. Two key trends underpin this evolution: the lower barriers to building digital products and services, and new platforms to reach customers online. Together, these trends have opened the doors for more people to pursue entrepreneurship, allowed companies to grow faster, and enabled new business models that were simply not possible before.

A prime example of this entrepreneurial evolution is Bardya Ziaian, an experienced Toronto-based entrepreneur and financial asset manager. Bardya co-founded Virtual Brokers in 2008, an online discount brokerage that upended the investing landscape in Canada by offering commission-free trades. This digital-first business model was a fraction of the cost of incumbent brokerages and made investing more accessible to mainstream consumers. Under Bardya’s leadership as CEO, Virtual Brokers was ranked the #1 discount broker and top innovator multiple times by The Globe and Mail. The company’s success was an example of how technology can enable new entrants to disrupt established industries.

The rise of cloud computing over the past decade has significantly reduced the cost and complexity of building digital products and services. Previously, an entrepreneur would have to invest in servers and data centers before even beginning to code their platform. But now, cloud services like AWS, Azure and Google Cloud allow you to spin up servers and storage on-demand, paying only for what you use. This has dramatically reduced the technical and capital barriers for launching an internet business.

Bardya Ziaian saw this firsthand when he founded Pario Technologies, which built trading and clearing systems for equities and options. By leveraging cloud infrastructure, he was able to get Pario off the ground and to market much quicker than building its own data centers. The agility provided by the cloud has unleashed a wave of software innovation and startup activity across all industries.

In addition to lower building costs, the ubiquity of mobile devices and social networks over the past decade has provided startups with unprecedented direct access to users. Instead of expensive traditional advertising, companies can acquire users organically via platforms like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Social media also enables real-time customer feedback, allowing entrepreneurs to refine products faster. And mobile apps with notification alerts create higher customer engagement and retention.

Some of the most transformational entrepreneurial companies over the past decade have pioneered entirely new business models based on digital technologies. For example, Uber’s on-demand ridesharing platform completely rethought personal transportation through mobile apps and location tracking. Airbnb turned every homeowner into a potential hotelier through its online marketplace and booking system. And Shopify empowered small businesses to create their own ecommerce stores and manage transactions with just a few clicks.

Underpinning these disruptive sharing economy and marketplace models is the ability to match supply and demand in real-time. This kind of frictionless coordination between consumers and suppliers simply wasn’t feasible before smartphones, GPS and other technical advancements. While not every entrepreneur will create the next billion-dollar unicorn, these digital-native companies set an inspirational bar for how technology can unlock groundbreaking new sources of value.

It’s very likely that the next decade of entrepreneurship will likely see artificial intelligence, augmented reality, 5G networks, and other emerging technologies enable even more ambitious innovations. But the core trends of lower startup hurdles and direct digital access to users that emerged over the past ten years have undoubtedly unleashed a new wave of entrepreneurial energy. Some companies  have already demonstrated how forward-thinking entrepreneurs can leverage these digital capabilities to take on incumbents and transform entire industries, and more of that spirit will define how we see entrepreneurship for the next decade.