‘Money is a byproduct of quality’: 30 quotes from Indian startup journeys

From innovation to impact, witness the memorable journey of Indian entrepreneurship in these 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 30 gems and insights from the week of December 31-January 6 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.

If you stop innovation, you will soon be out of business. - Werner Vogels, Amazon

Startups are all about timing. People you find to work with you, ideas - are they early or late? Whether people will love it or not? Most of these things will be out of your control. - Aprameya Radhakrishna

Whatever job you’re doing and wherever you’re working, just absorb as much as you can. If you persevere with it, the rewards will come later. - Sanjay Vazirani, Foodlink

Stand up for yourself and do not give up on your choices to please others. Everyone is born equal but it can only come true if you genuinely believe it and follow it to the tee. - Shambhavi Mishra, Talk Sassy

You can either be knocked down by the negative things, or you can take it in a positive way and learn from it. - Deepika Padukone

Reframe mistakes as stepping stones to success. - John Sweeney and Elena Imaretska, 'The Innovative Mindset'

Creative agencies approach a task as a purely creative exercise, quite often being ignorant of the strategic considerations. - Asher Ali, WinnerBrands

Media houses are still figuring out a way to monetise their vast content library. - Rahoul Bhaargava, Creative Antenna

No matter how rational you think your users are, people react emotionally. - Everett McKay, 'Intuitive Design'

Do not hesitate to take professional guidance to ensure best options for investments. - Upasana Taku, MobiKwik

An Indian consumer is concerned about four things - How do I know the exact condition of the vehicle? Am I picking it at the right price? Can I trust the seller? Are the documents genuine? - Sandeep Aggarwal, Droom

190 million people use the internet but don’t shop online, and startups creating reseller ecosystem for them have a lot of potential. - Ujjwal Chaudhry, RedSeer

India is many markets in one market. And there are sizeable segments and needs which are to be addressed. - Murthy Bjas, Jivi Mobiles

For a market the size of India, there is a growing need for newer funds. - Alok Goyal, Stellaris Venture Partners

As we move forward the number of Indians in the top 4,000 scientists will indeed increase rapidly. – Narayana Murthy, The Infosys Prize

The existing platforms catering to the vernacular audience focus on content consumption use cases and nobody has tried to build a community or discussion platform for the local audience. - Rahul Chowdhri, Stellaris Venture Partners

Business websites are already thinking of introducing voice search as a step beyond chatbots. Imagine speaking to an ecommerce site in your mother tongue and searching for products. - Sampad Swain, Instamojo

The only way to scale and provide high-quality experience is by tech-led standardisation to track granularly and automate a lot of the decision making by leveraging AI. - Raghav Chandra, UrbanClap

Fashion ecommerce can conceptually provide a better experience of shopping than real showrooms, but ecommerce companies seem to be delivery boys. The reason is their tech limitation. - Nitin Vats, TryNDBuy

It is the responsibility of every organisation, big or small, to ensure that customer/user data is secure. - Venkatesh Sundar, Indusface

The organisation’s people, or human malware as we are calling it now, continue to pose the biggest risk for cybersecurity. - Pankit Desai, Sequretek

Tech providers need to rethink their data infrastructure on how to comply with conscious consumer and a vigilant regulator. - Ankit Rawal, GreedyGame

India lacks an education ecosystem, which can allow students to work and make a career in the field of disruptive technologies like AI, Blockchain with an entrepreneurial mindset. - Gunjan Garg, Findia

With AI being a nascent sector in India, the industry is facing a huge skill gap. - Hari Krishnan Nair, Great Learning

If we have to shift the mindset of society at large, the film industry can play an influencing role. - ElsaMarie D’Silva, Safecity

We all must find ways to stay connected to our nature and forests. - Tenzing Bodosa

India accounted for nearly three million metric tonnes of e-waste in 2018, and the nation has a recycling capacity of only five percent of this amount. - Raj Kumar, Deshwal Waste Management

Given the state of environmental degradation, it makes no sense to invest in products that come at a heavy cost to ecology. There is a clear gap in the Indian market for green products. - Manisha Agarwal, Kolan

It is time to go back to traditional diets that celebrate an abundance of natural products and highlight local and home-cooked food. - Kavita Devgan, ‘Ultimate Grandmother Hacks'

Social work itself needs a professional well thought out sustainable approach. - Pooja Goyal, P.O. Box

One can become wise by reading many books and periodicals. Alternatively, one can travel widely and meet thousands of people to become wise. - Karaiadi Selvan, CADD Centre

To be an effective communicator, you have to be a lifelong collector of stories. - Rob Biesenbach, 'Unleash the Power of Storytelling'

Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well. - Voltaire

Money is a byproduct of quality. - Bhanu Pratap Singh Slathia, Ladybird Web Solution

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).