‘We’re not building a venture, we’re building a culture’ – 50 quotes from Indian startup journeys
From student entrepreneurship to sustainable development, 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 50 gems and insights from the week of July 12 – July 18 with your colleagues and networks, and check back to the original articles for more insights!
We need a new template that is drastically different from the vainglorious Unicorn hunt.
- Sumanth Raghavendra, DeckApp
Being in the consumers’ stream is good, but being in their face is not.
The line between online and offline is blurring.
Ecommerce presently counts for only two per cent share of the retail market in India.
Building an MVP is a lot harder than founders want to acknowledge.
The e-commerce boom has helped individuals trust online platforms.
- Lionel Charles, IndiaFilings.com
We are bringing about a paradigm shift in the entire agriculture value chain by being specialists in post-harvest management.
- Palat Vijayaraghavan, Lawrencedale Agro
Developing countries suffer more food losses during agricultural production.
– FAO Report
Is there one invention from India that has become a household name in the globe?
We see India as a place of big opportunities.
A thinking, thriving Indian software industry has emerged. Products are being built. Innovation is rampant.
- Sramana Mitra, One Million by One Million
A new wave of Enterprise Software product companies from India will soon take on the world.
- Mandar Kulkarni, Zanskar Advisors
If China is recognised as a ‘manufacturing factory’ of the world, India can become the ‘human resource capital’ of the world.
The major gifting market in India is in the offline stores – it’s almost 75 per cent of the whole gifting market.
India’s retail market is geared to scale up from $650 million to $1 trillion by 2020.
There is a revived interest in artifacts of India.
- Maneet Gohil, Lal10
The major issue gyms face is that a large section of people come and sign up, but 60-70% do not return.
In India, the food market is pretty fragmented and there is a lot of scope for the ecosystem to grow and develop.
Nearly 80 percent of local searches on mobile devices turn into purchases.
- comScore
GPS is more a spray-and-pray method. Beacons let you understand who the customer is and give an offer that makes sense to the customer and not a general offer.
More than 80% of the Indian apps on Google playstore struggle to reach 10,000 downloads.
The audiophile community is one that is fast growing.
- Raghav Somani, Headphone Zone
Shrinking living spaces, dynamic work patterns have resulted in people adopting a transient way of life.
Ads today have forgotten the protagonist of the story – the user.
More than 25 per cent of angel investors participate in follow-on rounds.
Foreign companies would find it profitable to locate here.
- Dr. Cigay, Bhutan Innovation and Technology Centre
We’re not building a venture, we’re building a culture.
It needs to be understood that having a diverse workplace brings better understanding and empathy to the culture of an organisation.
- Manisha Kathooria, Kays Harbor Technologies
Bootstrapping is a must in order to understand the challenges your business can face. It also forces you to overcome them frugally.
- Dinesh Pratap, Wooden Street
We’d always wanted to keep it bootstrapped until proof of concept was done, and then use money from investors only for expansion.
Some still think that I am crazy, but I am okay with that.
You have to work for 10 years to be an overnight success in B2B.
While going high do not forget to take people who are around you.
- H. Saroja, Nandi Vermicelli Industries
Balance your founders’ intuition with evidence.
I am happy that I took the plunge to satiate my hunger to start something of my own that not only interests me but also gets the best out of me.
- Navsangeet Kaur
The startup world is all about hope, optimism and an undiminishing zeal.
Set high standards for yourself. If you have a bad experience, learn from it.
- Mandakini Gupta
As individuals, we must try and eliminate cash transactions, as much as possible.
We need everyone’s help to answer the question ‘Whom should I vote for?’
As an entrepreneur, learn to celebrate your smaller successes.
I am going to try and win more slams and try and win a women’s Grand Slam as well. That’s what we really play for. Maybe, that’s the only target I can set.
It’s still hard for many to believe in the concept of ‘social enterprise’ and its motives to address key challenges in the society.
- Nagesh Chukka, vRemind
I want to give something back to the world and make the maximum of the life that I have been blessed with and make it count.
- Devanshi Seth, Take Care
It makes me happy to set an example for the fellow women of my village and inspire them to take up the traditional cultural heritage as a passion and profession.
- Swarna Chitrakar
I think, for women like me, who haven’t really faced discrimination as much, must work harder to speak up for those who are most disadvantaged.
- Sanskriti Jain, NADT
9 million people with disabilities in India are educated yet unemployed.
– The X-Women
Nearly 20% of the global youth population is in India.
- Shaun Jayachandran, Crossover Academy
Children today are overly exposed to technology.
- Parita Parekh, WonderBox
Modern day parents need a more digitization-friendly approach to parenting.
- Nalina Ramalakshmi, Parent Circle
We help people celebrate the event called life.
- Shailza Sood Dasgupta, Chalo Lets Go
Dance is nothing but yoga.
- Guru Syed Pasha
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).