‘Great organisations are built to last, not built to sell’ – 65 quotes from Indian startup journeys
From launch to longevity, 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 65 gems and insights from the week of June 17-23 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.
There’s no such thing as perfect timing. All timing is perfect. The more important thing is to get started. - Divyank Turakhia, Media.net
Startups are all about discovering the right business model. - Hari Balasubramanian, IAN
Companies can thrive when led by founders who are self-aware, gritty, and highly skilled. - Nruthya Madappa, The CoWrks Foundry
The creation of a culture in an organisation is a perpetual process. - Ravi Arora, Tata Sons
Bravery - not perfection - is the only true armour there is. - Reshma Saujani, Girls Who Code
Failure is another stepping stone to greatness. - Oprah Winfrey
Being your own boss gives you freedom of choice and the ability to juggle your various commitments if you are a parent. - Sanjay Shenoy, PixelTrack
Gig economy workers, often paid by the hour and with no sick leave privileges, end up delaying visiting doctors until their health situation worsens. - Srikanth Chunduri, Framewirk
Digital customer engagement is going through a transformational shift globally with AI-enabled interfaces. - Ravishankar, Active.Ai
There is an immense opportunity, backed by the growing demand from ecommerce businesses in the last two years, and the logistics and warehousing sector is consequently upgrading to higher levels of organisation. - Shobhit Agarwal, Anarock Capital
The data management market is forecasted to be worth $55 billion next year, yet the landscape is dominated by solutions that are 20-year-old. - Jaspreet Singh, Druva
Data science is fundamentally different from software development, as it is much more experimental in nature. - Aakash NS, Jovian
Data is transforming industries and creating new ones. - Solomon Assefa, IBM Research Africa
There also is an interesting shift towards data computing and focus on understanding the application, and the problems that are there to be solved. - Geetha Manjunath, Niramai
The low cost of mobile data and affordable smartphones have revolutionised the overall video content consumption in India. - Hanish Bhatia, Counterpoint Research
Cricket matches today are being viewed more and more on mobiles, desktops, and Smart TVs, and customers will seek high data speeds. - Anupam Shrivastava, BSNL
Skill-based gaming is also going to be at par, if not larger than the entertainment industry. - Ankush Gera, Junglee Games
The mobile medium has a set of realities, which as content makers one must embrace and play with. Once you understand the medium, the storytelling comes naturally. - Kiran Rao
There is a lot of scope for innovation at the junction where fashion meets technology. - Tsering Norbu, palnor.com
We see a synergy between fintech and emerging technology, which will play a vital role in various fields. - Kumar Binit, MoneyLoji
It’s a great time for the chemical industry in India to go digital. - Dilip Raghavan, Color Publications
In the next five years, the healthcare vocational training sector will undergo consolidation where all players with high-quality training will scale. - Nalin Saluja, Virohan
HR Tech is expected to be a billion-dollar industry by 2021 in India. - Devendra Khandegar, Kredily
The private space industry in India is becoming an interesting space for VC investments, with Indian companies competing aggressively with global counterparts. - Jatin Desai, IDFC-Parampara
Innovation in APIs will drive the future of software development. - Abhinav Asthana, Postman
While human teams have a relatively smaller bandwidth, even a single chat bot or voice bot can make it possible to handle thousands, even millions of different queries at a time. - Kartik Poddar, Haptik
Startups in hardware have to understand not just the packaging of the software and the networking; they also have to think about the supply chain and distribution. - Jitendra Chaddah, Intel India
The micro-mobility space is exploding globally and is driving the growth of the personal transportation space. - K Ganesh, GrowthStory
With respect to last-mile e-mobility, when you look at 200 million people at the bottom of the pyramid, they require transportation which is shared, connected, and affordable. - Nagesh Basavanhalli, Greaves Cotton
Technology is almost absent at the construction site. No one knows what is going on with the working capital as the money spent is over-reported. - Sashi Kiran, FalconBrick
India’s time is now. The ecosystem for entrepreneurship has never been better. - Roopa Kudva, Omidyar Network India
Our goal is to establish 50,000 startups in the country by 2024. - President Ram Nath Kovind
The need of hyperlocal content is still largely untapped despite the presence of a host of traditional and new-age content platforms in India. - Virendra Gupta, Dailyhunt
If you want a place in Parliament or the government, don’t ask for reservations. - Amruta Fadnavis, Mitti Ke Sitare
Representation of women is gradually gaining traction in every field, and the same goes for the wedding industry too. - Tina Tharwani, Shaadi Squad
Insurance buying in India is often an opaque process where customers are not always aware of what they are paying for - exclusions and inclusions both. - Ankit Agrawal, Girnar Insurance Brokers
Bengaluru featured as the first Indian city in the list of preferred investment destination on the basis of its growing reputation across the globe as the home base to several international corporates. - Anshuman Magazine, CBRE
Indian and international cartoonists can draw inspiration from one another and together raise the bar of this important profession. - V.G.Narendra, Indian Institute of Cartoonists
A lot of Chinese young entrepreneurs are trying to come to India as there is now no language barrier. The young Chinese generation speaks good English. - Victor Wang, ZhenFund
The regulatory sandbox can indeed be a highly effective tool that demonstrates to the payments ecosystem that novelty in digital payments is required, encouraged, and fostered. - TR Ramachandran, Visa
Young people in India are not skilled enough to make sure that India becomes the skill capital. - Clement Chauvet, UNDP
Students should keep updating themselves, as what they learn today may not be relevant in 10-20 years. - Alok Mittal, Plaksha
Startups today are re-imagining and reshaping the world we live in. Those working in the social sector are doing commendable work in the endeavour to change the lives of millions of Indians. - Smita Bhagat, HDFC Bank
Our ancestors used to cook in the clay pots, that time where was no aluminum or steel utensils and it was good for our health too. - Lokesh Krishnan, Potful
In India, particularly, there are so many fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains, and delicious vegan dishes, that one can revel in vegan food. - Ingrid Newkirk, PETA
The Biryani category worldwide leader should emerge from India. - Vishal Jindal, BBK
Many brands have built their equity on social purely by the way of addressing customer comments appropriately. - Sowmya Iyer, DViO Digital
Employees who have invested their careers into startups should not be made to wait 12-15 years to access their ESOPs. - Ganesh Nayak, LetsVenture
Employer branding has emerged as a crucial positioning tool for both, companies seeking talent with must-have skills and candidates seeking organisations that can support their aspirations. - Paul Dupuis, Randstad India
When you launch later than everyone else, you can learn from their mistakes and understand the gaps in the market. - Tarun Katial, ZEE5 India
Variety is addictive. Opportunity is addictive. - Mark Manson, 'Everything is F*cked'
Break out of your shell and take pride in your work. - Banat
Immigrants show up. They've shown up for work, shown up for this economy, and shown up with their political and social will. - Tenzin Seldon, Kinstep
There is always mounting pressure to prove ourselves, which gives way to anxiety. - Dr.Twinkle Behl
Mental health could very well be the next big epidemic to hit the human race. - Manish Singhal, pi Ventures
Yoga is a gift to mankind. It transports people to higher levels of functioning by putting them on the path to wellness and tranquility. - Grandmaster Akshar
Yoga is not just about flexibility and fitness, but also about will power, mental strength. and finding common ground with others. - Nargis Fakhri
If integrated with the right diet and lifestyle, yoga throws up phenomenal outcomes. - Mickey Mehta
Sushi has the right balance of protein and starch. Also, no processed ingredient is used in this food. - Ashwin Prasad, Sushimen
Nature awes us with her magic and reminds us that life is important. - Inir Pinheiro, Grassroutes
A scientific restoration of water bodies is essential to ensure future protection against flooding and stabilising the groundwater table. - Arun Krishnamurthy, Environmentalist Foundation of India
People always say that inner beauty and hard work is what is important but, in reality, few people go beyond one’s physical features. - Laxmi Agarwal
Art gives the freedom to transcend the realm of reality and draw from the depths of imagination. - Sunita Vasanth
This is just a world in which all of us need to open our doors and welcome people believing that tomorrow all of us can be friends with people we met yesterday as strangers. - Soraya Postel, Airbnb host
If you have talent, grit, persistence, the virtue of hard work, and the faith to be patient, you will survive not just hiccups, but heartbreaks too. - Prashantt Guptha
There is no product without the journey. And the glitz and glamour are at the end of the curve. - Chef Ranveer Brar
Great organisations are built to last, not built to sell. - Abhiraj Singh Bhal, Urban Clap
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).
