‘When you’re an entrepreneur, you’re a leader’ – 30 quotes from Indian startup journeys

From health-tech to hacking, 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 30 gems and insights from the week of November 22-28 with your colleagues and networks, and check back to the original articles for more insights!

We are coming to the point where smartphones may well be the first and possibly the only computing device with which rural India can gain access to internet.

- Karthik J, IDC

The cult picture for the 2015 habits has to have a smartphone and a user obsessively bent over it.

- Reeta Gupta, The Network

Scaling a home salon service requires a completely different DNA.

- Anil Chopra, Lakme Lever

Continuing care delivered to patients at home is a key prong of effective treatment.

- Meena Ganesh, Portea Medical

Seeking mental counselling is a huge taboo in our society.

- Richa Singh, YourDOST

Many diseases are still in a preventable stage – and one can mitigate the impact or reduce the side effects with proper diet and nutrition.

– Puru Gupta, True Elements

When we have fancy coffee places, why was a tea lounge missing?

- Abhijeet Mazumdar, Chaiwalah

Food forms a very important part of the travel experience.

– Robin Kalita, IRCTC

There is no logical case for the existence of a pure food delivery startup.

- Aditya Somani, investor

Exchanges are a money-free experience, so it attracts more attention to recycling and sustainable fashion.

- Sangeetha Mari, Exchange Room

The new crunch is of time, not money.

- Saurabh Singla, LazyLad

One of the advantages of running startups is that it is easier to change course than it is for a large organisation.

- Aditya Mehta, TipStop

When you’re an entrepreneur, you’re a leader by default. If you’re not actively developing yourself as a leader and making yourself better, you’re doing your team a disservice.

- Eileen Guo, Impassion Media

The reward of entrepreneurship is the journey and the relationships you build. Build them well!

- Mrigank Tripathi, Qustn Technologies

The battle for a startup is a continuous one and that is by design.

- Dikshant Dave, CureJoy

The ‘ice bucket challenge’ attracted more than USD 100 million in donations to help the needy in no time and without spending a single penny on marketing.

- Mahesh Murthy, Microsoft

Let’s first make our children fall in love with sport, everything else will follow.

– Rishikesh Joshi, Sports For All

It is necessary to provide defined career options for teachers to ensure the best are attracted and retained in the profession.

- Shruthi Ranganath Iyer, Hippocampus

I have seen several social enterprises not invest in processes just because they’re social enterprises, but that’s a wrong answer.

– Sanjay Anandram, SeedFund

Remember to celebrate small victories along the way.

– Rachna Prabhu, Doodle Doo

The global optimum is for everyone to be able to pick their field of interest without societal pressure.

– Nisha Holla

The first clause we make the families sign is that they send their daughters to the local government schools we have tied up with.

– Swati Bondia, Om Shanti Traders

Women chefs have been under-represented, but the balance is slowly reversing.

- Kainaz Messman, Theobroma

I really do not believe that men are better than women at technology.

- Pratheeksha Nair, India Rank 3, HackerRank’s Women’s Cup

The exhilaration of solving a programming challenge mathematically is what keeps me coming back for more.

- Simran Dokania, IIIT-B

Creativity isn’t some rare gift to be enjoyed by the lucky few – it’s a natural part of human thinking and behaviour.

- Tom and David Kelley, ‘Creative Confidence’

Being a first-time entrepreneur, I had the zeal and persistence of a lion, but at the same time, the innocence of a curious child.

- Geetanjali Khanna, Fastudent

There is a freedom that comes with being an entrepreneur.

- Jane Mason, Mason & Co.

I strongly believe that human struggle is not confined to roti, kapda, and makan. It goes much beyond that.

- Swagat Thorat, Sparshdnyan

Everyone in media must be socially responsible.

- Anu Malhotra, AIM Television

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).