‘Not everything can be captured by metrics alone’ – 60 quotes from Indian startup journeys

From the youth dividend to business impacts, witness the memorable journey of Indian entrepreneurship in these excerpts and stories! StoryBites is a weekly feature from YourStory, featuring notable quotable quotes in our articles of this past week (see the previous post here). Share these 45 gems and insights from the week of June 28 – July 4 with your colleagues and networks, and dip into the original articles for more insights! 

 Being born in a business family has its own pros and cons. - Keshav Baljee, Zip Rooms

I know these entrepreneurs are unique. – Ratan Tata

It’s a matter of time before democracy shifts online given how many users are on the internet. - Amol Agarwala, Rabbler

There are so many things to do and places to visit around you. - Vikas Rana, Oyelife

Most of the travel in India is either temple tourism or sightseeing. - Jagpreet Pabla, GypsyShack

E-commerce is booming, but car transactions have remained opaque and non-standardized experience. Some liken it to a fish market. - Arnav Kumar, Zoomo

There is a clear dearth of counsellors in India. – Shipra, ePsyclinic

One’s parents’ well-being is a matter of constant concern and worry. - Apratim Chattopadhyay, Support Elders

Consumer health is an unsolved area. - Prashant Tandon, 1mg.com

People try to memorise, which is the reason most people give up on learning languages very quickly. - Alok Arora, LingosMio

Getting over a billion people to not hoard and start selling is a large scale problem. - Palkush Rai Chawla, Elanic

There is no benchmarking of prices, qualifications or facilities [of health and fitness centres]. - Amaresh Ojha, Gympik

12 million children spend their childhood at work and not in a classroom. There is one rape every 30 minutes in India. – UN reports

Just 4.6 per cent of all rural households in the country pay income tax. – India Census 2011

For investing in med-tech you need deep pockets and the desire that return will not be in terms of money but the final impact had to be about saving millions of lives. - Vikram Damodaran, GE Healthcare

The Kolkata market is not filled up with numerous startups, so there is a huge potential for every new company to explore. - Utkarsh Lohia, JustShop24

Tier 2and 3 cities like Chandigarh are very pragmatic for startups where entrepreneurs may have their roots or family connections. - Kunal Nandwani, uTrade Solutions

Now we have women teaching their children, because they understand the value of Ryndia, and know there is a growing market for it. - Daniel Syiem, Ryndia

Infrastructure wise, skill wise and just even the weather makes it very difficult to run a business in Northeast India. - Nisha Bora, ElRhino

With the infusion of funding, we would be able to ensure fair value pricing and maintain a humane face to business. - Muheet Mehraj, Kashmir Box

Paying taxes is a right. - Vishvajit Sonagara, Quicko

Chase consumer wallet not the investor wallet. – Kashyap Deorah

We made just one investment in 2009. That was in Snapdeal. - Vani Kola, Kalaari Capital

While technology is present in every sphere of one’s life, the recruitment process is still untouched and unorganised. - Girish Balinga, CareerVita

The capital flow to support the build up of the new digital India euphoria is primarily external. - Rajesh Raju, Kalaari Capital

2015 is on track to be one of the hottest years for VC funding in the e-commerce/consumer internet space. - Sanat Rao, iSpirt

There were places where people didn’t have toilets in their homes, but they had cell phones. - Vijayaraghavan Vishwanathan, CERN

More than 65% of India’s imported fruits originate from Mumbai. - Deepam Prithyani, SaralMarket

During daytime almost 75 per cent of the intra-city logistics is done through mini trucks. - Vasister, GoGo Trucks

When content and commerce are gelled together, it becomes better for the customers. - Avi Jain, Homesake

Developers usually make a big mistake of bombarding app users with pop-ups. - Laxman Papineni, AppVirality

The best content marketers understand the nuances of each platform. - Radha Giri, Midas Touch Consultants

One of the biggest lessons we learned was to focus. - Masashi Takahashi, Voyagin

You can employ the barbell strategy in several different situations, to reduce your risk even as you take on high-risk opportunities. - Jithamithra Thathachari

For the first 25 times on stage I got more silence than laughter. - Sanjay Manaktala, comedian

Treat each customer as an individual, and invest in a system that will send unique hyper-personalized emails to customers. - Paras Arora, TargetingMantra

If you want to create impact, if you want to be the heart and soul of a company where the work you do matters, then you need to be an entrepreneur. – Ameera Shah, Metropolos

Mobile skill development laboratories should be introduced for the benefit of the students. – Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam

The aspiration and ambition of young India has grown manifold. – Ronnie Screwvala

Our biggest problem, which we never really considered major, is the pervasive corruption that plagues this industry. - Ankit, TruckMandi

The major challenge that we faced was reaching people, both in terms of store owners and customers. - Ajay Jose, Greenkurry

Our customers are the biggest marketers for us. - Gopal Krishna, Global 3D Labs

We also just introduced flexi six months maternity policy to encourage and enable women to continue to work and follow their passion even after delivery. – Naveen Tiwari, inMobi

The marketplace, with all of its vagaries, dynamism and intricacies, is the ultimate master of the CEO. – Joel Peterson, JetBlue

If people like you they will listen to you but if they TRUST you they will BUY from you. - Zig Ziglar

People often think that as they scale, their cost of acquisition per customer will be lesser. It’s quite the opposite, simply because you’ve already bagged the early adopters first. - Dave Richards, Unitus

Not everything can be captured by metrics alone. - Srikrishnan Ganeshan, Konotor

At any point in life, you should have answers to two questions – what are you doing and why are you doing it. – Sreepriya, Team Turnaround Systems

What you get from society, you must return multifold. - Padmashree Karamshi Jethabai Somaiya

If we can get the good water from rains and recharge it, that is like reserve water in the bank. - Rajendra Singh, water conservationist

We still live in an era where widows are considered to be a bad omen! - Sandhya Cherian, Frontier Mediville

Live life queen size. - Taapsee Pannu, The Wedding Factory

I somehow believe that mothers have that special touch which can make any product they design exclusive. - Mridula Arora, MomzBizz

I think women equality and empowerment will happen only when women start treating each other with respect. - Swati Vakharia, Women Planet

There is never a dull moment when you are an entrepreneur. - Kajal and Kavita, The Chalk Boutique

Happiness is from within. You don’t get it from others. - Jyoti Dhawale

I picked a career that I don’t need a vacation from. - Pooja Sampath, CentreStage

Entrepreneurship also comes with its share of disappointments and heartbreaks. - Pratibha Parthasarathy, e-Cademy

I am inspired by truth. - Sonam Kalra, The Sufi Gospel Project

Floods had trained us to live in the worst conditions and situations. - Ishani Sawant, mountaineer

We never learn from the good times as much as we learn from our bad patch. – Vaanee Bhatia, Gritstones.com

YourStory has also published the pocketbook ‘Proverbs and Quotes for Entrepreneurs: A World of Inspiration for Startups’ as a creative and motivational guide for innovators (downloadable as apps here: Apple, Android).