‘Look at the market opportunity before you dive in with your idea’ – 35 quotes from Indian startup journeys

From start to scale, 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 35 gems and insights from the week of April 30 – May 6 with your colleagues and networks, and check back to the original articles for more insights.

Great founders realise it isn’t about them, but about building phenomenally great products and ideas across the board. - Karthik Reddy, Blume Ventures

Strategic partnerships play a significant role in enriching customer experience. - Saurabh Mishra, Ola

The emphasis on workplace culture has changed HR’s role, making it more strategic and collaborative. - Joel Paul, RiseSmart

You must learn to truly embrace different backgrounds, conditioning, ideas, and adapt your own approach to incorporate perspectives that may be different from your own. - Korn Ferry Institute, 'The power of EI'

One only needs to get creative to discover new opportunities. - Kumar Raman, IW

Nothing pushes you forward like the voice that comes from within. - Upasana Taku, MobiKwik

Effective implementation of GST is of paramount importance for the success of ecommerce in India. - Alok Patnia, TaxMantra

Savings is a lifetime security. - Rupali Pradan, Grace SHG

Packaging can influence buying behaviour and companies are looking at innovation in this space. We are excited to see how technology is playing a role in this $40B marketplace in India. - Ranjith Menon, IDG Ventures India Advisors

India’s digital media segment is undergoing a massive transformation. - Pankaj Makkar, Bertelsmann India Investments

There is a huge opportunity for creators in India to enhance education and learning through YouTube. - Satya Raghavan, YouTube Entertainment

Market conditions differ across various geographies. It is important to give the context of where India is. - Ambareesh Murthy, Pepperfry

In the US, it is a law to include subtitles. We should have that in India as well. - Alim Chandani, Global Reach Out Initiative

The cost of going digital for an SME in India today is as low as Rs 5,000 per user for a year. - Sudhir Nayar, Cisco India & SAARC

Current traditional office spaces in India are out of sync with aspiring workforce needs of the youth that wants a round-the-clock exposure to the shared economy, modern consumerism and western practices. - Neetish Sarda, Smartworks

With less than 10 percent of early-stage VC funding going to healthcare and education, there is a scarcity of capital for good companies in these sectors. - Will Poole, Unitus Ventures

Most established architects or designers aspire to move up the value chain, thereby leaving the mid-segment clientele to the mercy of local contractors. - Ashish Dhingra, MarksDzyn

There certainly are professional advantages, and even long-term monetary benefits of working in a foreign language. - Probal Shome, Allianz Deutschland AG

It is now up to policymakers and bureaucrats to come up with an action plan and mitigation tactics to ensure the state has a climate-proof future. - A Ramachandran, Anna University

People are made to believe in certain ideas such as use of refined sunflower oil will help reduce heart problems, which in reality, is completely false. - Rajan Mahendra, Aarogyahaar

The growth of a smart city project can give way to massive opportunity, particularly when we talk about demand for affordable homes. - Varun Manian, Radiance Realty

Blockchain and related trust enhancing technologies are poised to redefine the automotive industry. - Chris Ballinger, MOBI

Rushing into blockchain deployments could lead organisations to significant problems of failed innovation, wasted investment, rash decisions and even rejection of a game-changing technology. - David Furlonger, Gartner

Every company is undergoing a digital transformation and integration has never been more strategic. - Marc Benioff, SalesForce.com

The falsely instilled fear that AI is taking jobs hinders the full creative expansion and capability of our generation. - Adrien Schmidt, Bouquet.ai

Asia-Pacific organisations should proactively look to develop robust infrastructure and ecosystems to support the needs of data analytics and real-time data processing. - BS Teh, Seagate

The game changer in reducing the cost of acquisition is digitisation. It is cheaper and more easily scalable than traditional models. - Murari Sridharan, BankBazaar.com

To win, you have to leverage tech better and be more cost efficient than your competitors. - Satya Prabhakar, Sulekha

Technology amplifies human creativity. People use it to drive growth in the form of marketing and innovation. Technology strategy is the business strategy. - Michael Dell

We as marketers need to rethink targeting, tracking, privacy, data collection and its ethical usage, all over again. We need to clearly ask, how much of data capture is enough. - Rajeev Sharma, Awrizon

The key to making word-of-mouth work today is local marketing. - Jim Rulison, Media Loop

If an idea is passed from person to person, it leads to a movement that can bring social change. - Natsuko Tominaga, The Nippon Foundation

If money is your only motivation, then you won’t succeed because there is no end to this want. - Vartika Kashyap, ProofHub

Success is more than money, it is about mission. - Manjunath Wali

Distinguishing success from failure, oddly, can be the hardest task of all: arrogant leaders can ignore the distinction. - Tim Harford, 'Adapt'

Failure shortens the learning curve and you need to come back from failure to emerge as winners. – Rajeev Jha, Sandbox Startups

There will be newer mistakes. Startups are all about timing. - Aprameya Radhakrishna, Vokal

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

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).