‘Great vision without great people is irrelevant’ – 40 quotes from Indian startup journeys

From technology to teamwork, 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 40 gems and insights from the week of June 11-17 with your colleagues and networks, and check back to the original articles for more insights.

Doing a startup is an extremely humbling experience. - Divyesh Kharade, DronaHQ

The most attractive thing you can wear is confidence. - Mitu Samar, Eminence

We all have our stresses, and we will continue to have them always. How we deal with it is what matters. - Amrita Raichand, Celebrity Chef

Often when experience hits a brick wall, it’s the young mind which soars beyond and unlocks the door to brighter things. - Vinay Kanchan, 'Lessons from the Playground'

Success breeds more success. The best VC investors are those who have been successful entrepreneurs themselves. - Kris Gopalakrishnan, Axilor Ventures

Structuring the term sheet the right way will ensure that it is a win-win for both parties, rather than one party getting a bad deal. - Prashant Pansare, Eagle10 Ventures

Healthcare is a misnomer in the country. - Priyanjali Datta, Aaroogya

Cancer is not our worst enemy. It’s fear! - Dr BS Ajaikumar, HCG

Working on and improving one’s breathing is a great way to make sure your brain works well, even in high-pressure moments. - Tania Sachdev, grandmaster

The influence of technology has reached even hiring and HR practices, changing the ways companies hire. - Ramandeep Arora, edWisor

Sharing assets across categories is a huge trend. - Abhay Pandey, Sequoia Capital

Uberisation is an important step in the right direction and is low-hanging fruit for companies looking to diversify their workforces. - Neha Bagaria, JobsForHer

CoD is the main reason why returns are high. It is at 40-45 percent of the total sales in the industry. - Satish Meena, Forrester

Omnichannel strategy is all about how best to use tech offline. Tech makes it intuitive and easier for the customer to check out items and make the purchase. - Ananth Narayanan, Myntra

The best way to leverage analytics would be to make sure you have a single platform for all your analytics. - Sudhir Nayar, Cisco India

In the next five years, I don’t see branches existing. There will be more customer experience centres and not branches. - Bhavesh Gupta, Clix Capital

Logistics is a capital-intensive and low-margin business. Tech companies will have to scale to more than a billion dollars in invoicing to make gross margins as little as one or two percent. - Chetan Anand, PricewaterhouseCoopers

Enterprise data security needs to be a business-led initiative with a focused understanding of what constitutes critical data and flow of data. - Pankit Desai, Sequretek

It is absolutely critical that we stay grounded to realities such as data security, fraud, and other imminent dangers that are lurking around. - Sundararajan S, i-exceed

We’ve reached an age where what the world needs most from companies is transparency. - Varun Mayya, Avalon Labs

GDPR is a laudable step towards ensuring greater rights to individuals and it should not become any other legislation with extensive rights on paper and little implementation. - Supratim Chakraborty, Khaitan & Co

India is not a country of a billion users. India is, in fact, many countries. - Ravi Venkatesan, 'Conquering the Chaos'

The government is now pushing towards touching a billion transactions a month. Fintech in India today is at a tipping point. - Sony Joy, Chillr

Aspiring Indian startups are increasingly adopting vernacular languages to reach out to masses in the country. - Vani Kola, Kalaari Capital

India has the second largest population of internet users in the world, but there are still almost a billion Indians who aren’t online. - Caesar Sengupta, Google

True development of an economy can only take place when villages and smaller towns, that are at the very grass-root levels, join the digital revolution. - Kiran Vasireddy, Paytm

Diversity really matters, both ethically and economically. - Harriet Green, IBM Asia Pacific

In terms of culture, companies founded by millennials are likely to be very different from companies founded by, say baby boomers. - TN Hari, BigBasket

The most successful innovators remain true to their vision (the what) but flexible on the path to achieve it (the how). - Kate Purmal, ‘The Moonshot Effect’

The highest quality of thinking cannot emerge without learning. Learning can’t happen without mistakes. - Liz Wiseman, 'Multipliers'

Unlearning is not easy. - Prerana Nayak, Microsoft

The year 2017 taught us about one thing - listening. - Bjorn Hubert-Wallander, Uber

Waste management around the world has crossed the trillion-dollar mark and is increasing by 100 million per day. - Ved Prakash, Gemini Corporation

Photography gives you a unique and long-lasting connect to nature. – MN Jayakumar, ‘Life in the Jungle’

Intensity, perseverance, humility, introspection, and insight, practised with absolute sincerity, are the keys to success, be it in the sporting arena or in the business world. - Arjun Kalyanpur, Teleradiology Solutions

Large companies should use the startup ecosystem to get access to innovation and technology. - V Balakrishnan, Exfinity Ventures

Enterprises are learning from fast-moving startups on how they can be more agile and change faster, and startups are also trying to learn from enterprises. - Oyvind Roti, Google Cloud

The ability to innovate and consistently evolve in doing something new is a risk that every startup needs to take in order to stand out in the competitive market. - Ranu Bathwal, Popup Galleria

Work smart, not just hard. The hardest worker is the donkey. - Rohan Bhargava, CashKaro.com

Unless you a have a strong will and an iron-willed grit, you can never conquer your personal ‘Everest’. - Vikas Dimri, Deutsche Bank

When you’re going on a high-risk path to cause a very high impact, it’s just very important to stay focused till such time where you achieve your ambition. - Monishika Gupta

Whatever you do, it’s key that you enjoy the ride. - Agnieszka Nowicka, Langu

While hiring, always remember – great vision without great people is irrelevant. - Jaimin Shah, DEV IT

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).