‘Every challenge is an opportunity if you flip it’ – 50 quotes from Indian startup journeys

From obstacle to opportunity, witness the memorable journey of Indian entrepreneurship in these quotes, excerpts and stories!

Launched in 2014, 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 50 gems and insights from the week of January 7-13 with your colleagues and networks, and check back to the original articles for more insights. See also our compilation of Top 50 Quotes from 2018 here.

Building strategic partnerships is pivotal for growth. - Ezhilarasan Natarajan, CoreStack

Most entrepreneurs focus on the product side of the company and very few of them focus on go-to-market strategies or sales. - Manish Upadhyay

When you are in a market that is fast growing and super early, the ability to understand, work and experiment with customer patterns is massive. - Manik Gupta, Uber

The challenge that so many people have is not knowing how to take that first step of reaching out to another person for help. - Kate Middleton

Don’t underestimate the connections you build over the years, stay in touch with as many people as you can, and don’t miss any opportunity to network. - Madhurima Agarwal, NetApp

Networking requires a degree of interest in others, and a desire to add some value to others - while hopefully, also deriving value for yourself in the process. - Meena Ganesh, Portea Medical

Make giving a habit so networking becomes a delightful stroll in the garden with no butterfly net in tow. - Shikha Uberoi Bajpai, Indi.com

Don't listen to your close friends and family members, who can't be good critics. For them, your artwork will be always perfect. Find someone who can give you honest feedback. - Asha Bhat

Nobody else has your specific story. That’s a competitive advantage that can distinguish you from others and ensure you’re remembered. - Rob Biesenbach, 'Unleash the Power of Storytelling'

You should have the madness, confidence, and strength to show your creativity to this world. - Swetha Nagori

The need of the hour is innovation both at the high as well as the lower end of the healthcare spectrum. - Vaibhav Tewari, Portea Medical

Never start a campaign during the last weeks of the month when people have less money in their accounts. Festival times when people receive bonuses are a good time too. - Divanshu Kumar, Involve

At a time when online shopping is slowly becoming the new norm, it’s necessary for the retail industry to focus on upskilling its workforce. - Nikhil Barshikar, Imarticus Learning

Going for popular influencers might get you a larger audience, but it will also downplay the probability of your message actually affecting anybody. - Manish Bhatnagar, VURoll

What’s fulfilling is creating something new globally. - Gauravjeet Singh, Playo

We needn’t strive to become another Germany or China in terms of hardware innovation but build New India. After all, it is not always about jugaad. - Aayush Rai, Inito

A unified domestic market will create far greater opportunities for businesses in terms of their ability to expand anywhere in the country. - Vivek Tiwari, Satya MicroCapital

The Indian economy (particularly the IT industry) is building a huge appetite for design. - Visvapriya Sathiyam, SAP

2018 will go down as the year that created the hockey stick effect for the startup ecosystem as we look back after a few years. - Anup Jain, Orios Venture Partners

For the SMBs, everything has to be mobile-first and in simple and easy (gamified) steps. - Shalini Girish, Google India

If people do not advance towards technology, technology must be taken to them. - B.L. Mittal, SastaSundar.com

Digital media have disrupted the world of music as never before, putting power back in the hands of creators. - Manasi Prasad, Indian Music Experience

Personalised messaging is the biggest trend the digital marketing world is seeing and will see in the near future. - Yogesh C, Digital Academy 360

Most customers today are channel-agnostic. They usually prefer that support or assistance is always available at their fingertips. - Sreevathsa Prabhakar, Servify

By integrating your CRM and telephony services, you can make your business stand out even in a hyper-competitive market. - Limesh Parekh, Enjay IT Solutions

Breaches are increasingly caused by weak applications and automation is essential for under-staffed teams. - Ross McKerchar, Sophos

Conventional defences offered by web application firewalls are not sufficient to detect bots and automated attacks. - Pavan Thatha, ShieldSquare

There is a need to make the world a safer place with remotely accessible security systems. - Vaibhav Patel, Alteration Innotech

PoS is the next big opportunity in fintech. - Sudhakar Ram, Benow

SaaS is seen as a much secure and scalable business option for upcoming entrepreneurs. - Ankit Jain, MyOperator

No bank will ever move all its sensitive data to the cloud due to compliance and security risks, but a newfound balance in determining the choice between different cloud formats. - Sudhir Babu, i-exceed

The dawn of IoT is further urging the government to set up a grid-based infrastructure that can monitor vehicular progress and ensure greater security. - Jeetender Sharma, Okinawa Autotech

While it enables transactional transparency across a variety of business functions, Blockchain will also be present at the core of business innovation in many industries. - Padmanabhan Iyer, 3i Infotech

iPhones have gone costlier and the features and specs aren’t that compelling. - Neil Shah, Counterpoint Research

The needs and the behaviours of the next 500 million internet users are going to be very different from the first 100 million. - Tarun Davda, Matrix Partners India

The future work ecosystem is a time of free-thinkers. - Pranay Gupta, 91springboard

Call them the new-age tools for branding, hiring, employee engagement or innovation, hackathons have clearly gained popularity in the last few years. - Ketan Kapoor, Mettl

Those countries that absorb technology more enthusiastically, have reduced their unemployment much more than those which did not embrace technology. - Narayana Murthy, Infosys

The consumer electronics industry is one of the fastest growing, but also one of the most volatile, aggressive and competitive. - Rakesh Dugar, Mitashi Edutainment

If you want to respond to problems at the scale and the urgency at which they are spreading, civil society really needs to rethink its relationship with technology. - Rohini Nilekani, Arghyam

In places of conflict, the voice and talent of the average person is often drowned out by the noise of violence. - Sama Bég, Koshur Lifestyle

Spending time in nature, journalling, aromatherapy, and yoga are activities that will help you feel relaxed. They all work in different ways. - Anna Chandy, The Live Love Laugh Foundation

What keeps us motivated in our workplaces is not fancy titles, enviable perks or ludicrous salaries but whether the job content generates endorphins in us to lead a peppy and healthy life. - Nandini Vaidyanathan, 'Entrepedia'

If you are happy then it rubs onto others, and when they see you happy, they like to help you in all you do. - Dheeraj Dhoopar

You have to keep moving to get ahead. - Maude Abraham, Get Gorgeous Beauty Bar

It is important to grow as a person and acquire knowledge. As you do so, you become a better person. You learn to invest in yourself and in turn, you understand the world. - Sanjay Garg, Raw Mango

The biggest challenge is always mindsets and aspirations. - Zarina Screwvala, Swades Foundation

It is important to find the right reasons to start up so that one remains motivated for a long time. The industry is dynamic and keeps changing, so one has to be ready to stretch. - Monalisa Dani, Pixights

Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs view that the world is only about themselves and they do not want to build institutions. - Sridhar Vembu, Zoho Corp

The grass is greener where there is manure. - Arlan Hamilton, Backstage Capital

Every challenge is an opportunity if you flip it. - Geeta Goel, Michael and Susan Dell Foundation

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).