‘Goa’s unfair advantage is Goa' – 25 quotes from Goa Startup and Innovation Day 2018

Here are 25 quotes and witty soundbites about entrepreneurship and innovation, and Goa’s rise as a startup hub.

Going beyond the mining and tourism sectors, the next wave of jobs and creativity in Goa is expected to be driven by the IT sector, electronics, and entrepreneurship (‘software, silicon, startups’). The inaugural Goa Startup and Innovation Day (GSID) feaured a high-level conference on entrepreneurship, startup pitches, and expert panel discussions.

Authoritative documents were also unveiled on the Goa Startup Policy, Goa Startup Schemes, and State of the Goa Startup Ecosystem (see our writeup here). Ministers, CEOs, investors, diplomats and founders shared their experience in wide-ranging panels and keynotes. They addressed topics such as emerging technologies, leadership teams, product-market fit, innovation ecosystems, urban infrastructure, digital design, financing schemes, global entrepreneurship trends, and the need for inclusive innovation and women entrepreneurship.

Success stories and learnings were presented by LendingKart, Grofers, HouseJoy, WittyFeed, Qualcomm Ventures, Mumbai Angels, T-Hub, 91Springboard, Product Nation, CIBA, Goa Technology Association, and other firms. From ideation and investment to promotion and policy, we present insights from the 30 speakers at GSID 2018.

Goa now stands for Golden Opportunity Available. - Rohan Khaunte, Minister of Revenue, IT, Labour and Employment, Government of Goa

Goa will be the next destination to become a hub of global ideas. - Suresh Prabhu, Minister of Commerce & Industry & Civil Aviation, Government of India

Goa should target on having at least 100 successful startups in the next five years. - Prashant DS, CIBA

The wait is over for Goa and it will soon become a startup destination for everyone. - Milind Anvekar, Open Destinations

The IT and startup sectors have the right desired profiles for the next wave of Goa’s transformation. - Praveen Volvotkar, Dept. of IT, Goa

The world’s second-best corporate training platform is in Goa. - Utkarsh Apoorva, HandyTrain

An exciting place to visit - that's the great image Goa has, let's extend that to startups too. - Parveen Singhal, WittyFeed

The city of Goa has great infrastructure, and it's time it starts giving competition to the other cities that are thriving with startups. – Rama Bethmangalkar, Qualcomm Ventures

The state should bring back the talent that's moved out of Goa. - Anil Joshi, Unicorn India Ventures

Happy people create happy products. – Preet Deep Singh, Startup Promotion Cell

Goa’s unfair advantage is Goa. – Anil Chikkara, Startup India Foundation

We as a country are reaching that point where people are willing to leave Tier 1 cities and move to Tier 2 towns. - Dhaval Gupta, CyberMedia

There has to be some intervention in learning skills to ramp up to the new age technologies - Purushottam Modani, Mumbai Angels

Keep it simple. Don't over-complicate your business. The business should be simple enough to be explained in two to three lines. – Arun Narayan, UK-India Business Council

A lot of startups fail because of the wrong team and choosing the wrong investor. An entrepreneur should have a lot of focus. – Mangirish Salelkar, Goa Technology Association

‘Don't fall in the same place where I have fallen, fall in a different place' - this is the advice we give people, so they learn not to make the same mistakes. – Rama Iyer, T-Hub

The biggest challenge that technologies like blockchain will face is that it will make systems a lot more efficient – Abhishek Pitti, Nucleus Vision

To increase market size by 10X or 50X, the cost of doing business must come down. – Nakul Saxena, iSPIRT

Look at the market opportunity before you dive in with your idea. - Manas Gupta, Grofers

Storytelling works only if it has passion and clarity, and is unique. – Saran Chatterjee, HouseJoy

The ambition of the entrepreneur and the attitude of the team is something we look for when investing in a startup. - Arun Dubey, Garage 5B, Dr Reddy’s Labs

What builds a startup ecosystem is a strong group of investors. Anything that's growing needs money. - Nandini Mansinghka, Mumbai Angels

Funding for innovators includes funding for R&D and market promotion. - Mignesh Parekh, PEI Canada

Unit economics may be a scary term for entrepreneurs, but it should not be. - Gourav Jaswal, Prototyze

When you start off, you must focus on your cash flow. – Pranay Gupta, 91Springboard

In my experience either people have focus on unit economics from the start, or they don't have it from the start. – Vishal Chopra, LendingKart

Engineers, technocrats, corporates - the whole ecosystem is built around good connectivity in Switzerland. - Thai Huy Nguyen, Consulate General of Switzerland

France and India have startup ecosystems that are in the Top Five in the world. – Rohit Sinnas, Trade and Investment Commission of France in India

For a startup, the ease of doing innovation in a state is more important than the ease of setting up a business. – Ulrika Sunberg, Consul General of Sweden

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).