‘If we build great companies, global capital will flow’ – 50 quotes from TechSparks 2017

From leadership to luck, 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). Drawn from YourStory’s articles and tweets from the annual flagship TechSparks conference, here are 50 gems of insight from a star-studded lineup of speakers. Share them with your colleagues and networks, and check back to the original articles for more insights. 

Boldness has magic, has genius and has power. - Nivruti Rai, Intel India

Create with freedom, nurture with passion and change with detachment. - Gopichand Katragadda, Tata Sons

India is going to be leading innovation for the world. We have a large domestic economy for startups to succeed and a large global market. - Naveen Asrani, Microsoft India

Fintech without scale is meaningless. This is not an industry where you can merely be a small innovative player without touching the lives of a meaningful section of customers. - Shashank Rishyasringa, Capital Float

We are going through a hype cycle and the media is further ahead in portraying the death of banks, but that is not really true. - Bala Parthasarathy, MoneyTap

China will go cashless in 10 years – all payments will be digital. - Kan Liu, Wosai Technology

Technology is key to building trust and dependability in the sharing economy. - Christian Freese, Uber

We want fashion to be like quiet luxury. - Sussanne Khan

From zippers to wearables, fashion has always been innovative. – Lisa Lang, ElektroCouture

CRG (Cue Routine Gratification) is how design draws people to use products. - Himanshu Khanna, Sparklin

Farmers start up almost every single day. They constitute so much of the Indian economy but so little attention is given to them. - Balz Strasser, Swissnex India

Technology now gives people access to things they do not need to own. - Smruti Parida, Nestaway Homes

India is a big market for Germany, we can benefit from its frugal mindset and entrepreneurial spirit. - Margit Hellwig-Boette, German Consul General, Bengaluru

What you can get in the domestic market, 10X of that you can get in the global economy. - Amitabh Kant, NITI Aayog

All of you do matter, every single idea matters. - Priyank Kharge, IT Minister, Karnataka

The government can now be a client and startups solving real problems can scale fast. This had never happened before. - Madhurima Agarwal, NetApp Excellerator

A major challenge for innovation in India is the disconnect between industry and academic R&D. - MS Rao, IIT Madras

Debt can be complementary to equity when you raise capital; you do not lose your equity and you can use the money to scale up product or manage working capital. - Vivek Adhav, Axis Bank

If we build great companies, global capital will flow. - Vani Kola, Kalaari Capital

Startups need money for growth. And they need growth to raise money. – Rashmi Ranjan, Yappily

Taking care of health is not a standalone process. It has to be holistic across diet and fitness. - Ankit Nagori, CureFit

We often do not realise that dieting is not about losing weight; it’s about a feeling of not being good enough. - Moritz Warntjen, BodyListeners

The future is pharmaceutical companies working along with digital health. - Jannis Busch, Bayer Pharma

Like the ‘digital twin’ for engineering, the ‘digital patient’ is a powerful model in healthcare. - Gerd Hoefner, Siemens Healthineers

It takes time for AI to learn the ontology of an industry. - Nipun Mehrotra, IBM India

Your idea combined with artificial intelligence can make you revolutionise mankind. – Vishal Dhupar, Nvidia India

Fall in love with the problem not the solution. – Nikhil Rungta, QuickBooks

You can’t be complacent. There is always another guy out there who will have a better idea and that is why you need to innovate all the time. - Sunil Sood, Vodafone India

Culture drives performance in a company. - Anu Sharma, The HR Practice

Everybody can influence the culture of a team, but it is started by the leader. – TN Hari, BigBasket

There should be a balance between transparency and diplomacy in a founder. - Amitabh Mishra, GoFro.com

One in 10 startups in the US receives support from an accelerator. Among the ones that receive investment, one in three startups has an accelerator. In India the ratio is much lower. - Ganapathy Venugopal, Axilor Ventures

It is important for accelerators to think differently from a co-working space or an incubator. You have to think like an investor. - Abhishek Gupta, TLabs

In the last two years, we are seeing Indian startups moving beyond the ‘me too’ variety; they are expanding into areas like deep tech. - Amit Shah, YES Bank

I am not trying to make millions, I am trying to change the way millions think and learn. - Byju Raveendran

A perfect mentor does not exist. There are multiple mentors out there, we need to learn to be the right mentee. - Radhika Aggarwal, ShopClues

Motivation is more important than money in making partnerships work. - Eileen Trenkmann, GIZ

Anything that is connected to the Internet is hackable. - Vineet Kumar, Cyber Peace Foundation

Data is no longer locked away in hidden devices and firewalls. - Deepak Visweswaraiah, NetApp

Data is more powerful than oil. When you sell a barrel of oil, it's gone, but data you can sell again and again. - Ajeya Motaganahalli, NetApp

The inter-connected society is driven by the ‘3 Ss’ – sensors, software and services. - Ramakrishna Donakonda, Bosch India

Like Industry 4.0, we also need to look at Employment 4.0 – what kinds of skills and jobs will be there in the connected world? - Jurgen Lehmann, Hof University

India should look at technology to increase efficiency, not to replace workers. - Srikanth Gopalakrishnan, SAP

Scale has been the problem of our country, and today's ecosystem allows us to scale brilliantly. - Alok Nanda, GE India

Technology is not the solution, it's just the empowering tool. - Rajendran Dandapani, Zoho

This is the most phenomenal time to be a startup in India. – Naveen Asrani, Microsoft India

Every country needs push and pull for growth. - Sheelika Ravishankar, TeamIndus

Big stories come from small towns. – Pankaj Dubey, ‘What a Loser’

Storytelling is not a formatted business and it can be very hard for a VC to understand. - Rana Daggubati

In the creative business, we have more flops than hits. There is no assurance of success in publishing. - Chiki Sarkar, Juggernaut

Online readers are very different from traditional book readers; they are much more demanding and discerning. They have access to global material. - Sagarika Ghose, 'Indira'

Commit to understanding what your strengths are. Don't let others decide who you are. – Meeta Malhotra, Varana Design

Life doesn’t happen to you, you are the creator of every moment of your life. You just have to choose. - Samara Mahindra, CARER Program

While luck is a factor, at some level you need to manufacture your own luck. - Kumar Rangarajan, Slang Labs

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).

(Watch out for a bigger and better TechSparks 2018. Sign up for updates now.)