‘Your location is no bar for your ambition’ – 45 quotes from Indian startup journeys

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 45 gems and insights from the week of August 12-18 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.

One can never know it all, but one can at least attempt to learn it all. - Lyric Jain, Logically

The key is to keep the faith and keep moving. The peak will be worth it. It's not as far as you think it is. - Karthik Venkateswaran, Jumbotail

Always be a first-rate version of yourself and not a second-rate version of someone else. – Judy Garland

There will come a time when you’ll have to delegate, but you shouldn’t delegate before doing it yourself. - Sushant Goel, Third Wave Coffee Roasters

The next frontier of content is immersive. This creates exciting new possibilities for entertainment, shopping, gaming, and - most importantly - for education. - Mukesh Ambani, Reliance Industries

What the next 500 million users need is digital hand-holding in a humane way. - Kushagra Sinha, Jiny

High-growth cities like Bengaluru must be made self-governing with a full-time mayor and in charge of its own allocation. - TV Mohandas Pai and Nisha Holla

It's easy to stoke up fire in mobs, but to convince them to shun violence and still feel powerful is nothing short of a superpower. - Kushagra Sinha, Jiny

Despite all the support from institutions, entrepreneurship in urban service delivery remains stunted. - Jaya Dhindaw and Aarathi Kumar, TheCityFix Labs

The biggest problem defence personnel face after retiring from military service is adapting to the unorganised and inconsistent civilian world. - Captain Mahendra Gopal Ghag

The government still doesn’t know what fantasy sports is. It doesn’t know how to tax the sector. And, the general public associates fantasy gaming with gambling. - Vinit Godara, MyTeam11

We have to make medical devices for India and address issues, which will never be taken up by MNCs. - Siraj Dhanani, InnAccel

This is the first year we LGBTQIA+ are really free. - Ashok Row Kavi, The Humsafar Trust

Indian companies are poised to break the innovation barrier and come up with solutions to prevent, detect, and treat infections. - Anand Anandkumar, Bugworks Research

We need to improve the ease of doing business for startups in the country. - V Balakrishnan, Exfinity Ventures

The real fun is not in creating a multibillion-dollar company but in changing the way millions think and learn. - Byju Raveendran

India is still young when it comes to non-music audio content, but given the current consumption trends, the country could play a big part in this global opportunity in the coming years. - Amarjit Singh Batra, Spotify India

Facebook and Google currently account for up to 80 percent of Indian digital ad spend. - Ujjwal Chaudhry, RedSeer Consulting

Indian travellers are increasingly opting for a holistic and exclusive vacation experience, making on-demand car rentals one of the biggest travel trends of the year. - Rajnish Kumar, ixigo

India is yet to create a consumer brand that would capture global imagination like H&M or Zara. - Mansi Gupta, Tjori

Collaboration is the only way to go. The younger an ecosystem is, the more it is necessary to collaborate. - Pankaj Mitra, Cisco Investments

Studies have shown that 92 percent of SMEs or self-employed business are unfunded in India. This means they generally cannot avail credit either from a bank or NBFC. - Vaibhav Mishra, MudraCircle

Every year, 620 million rakhis are dumped as waste that never decomposes. A whopping 1.18 billion tonnes of carbon footprint is generated as a result. - Nitin Jain, Indibni

The Ganges and the Indus are two of the 10 rivers in the world that heavily contribute to plastic waste in oceans. - Anitha Shankar, Astu Eco

That many Indians seem willing to trade their privacy in exchange for convenience is a worrying trend, one that can only be dealt with through effective consumer education. - Tuhina Joshi and Vijayant Singh, Ikigai Law

The role that the digital world plays now is that of a double-edged sword. While it exposes children to a lot of useful information, it also exposes them to unnecessary amount of information in some aspects. - Urvi Sheth, Beyond Books

The sheer magnitude of problems faced by adolescents every day in India highlights the fact that no one stakeholder is capable of transforming their lives and creating change at the scale and pace that is urgently required to move India forward. - Neera Nundy, Dasra

India's agriculture sector is advancing steadily towards digital transformation and the startup ecosystem is playing a critical role here, bringing innovation and disruption in much-needed areas. - Debjani Ghosh, NASSCOM

If we are to play a meaningful role nationally, and in the community of nations, we must be second to none in the application of advanced technologies to the real problems of man and society. - Vikram Sarabhai

Testing your business is really important with real customers. - Priyanshi Choubey, InstaCar

The most difficult part is maintaining a healthy balance between the value that goes into the product and the value that it gives to the customer. - Madhuri Aggarwal, Weaves of Tradition

Digital marketing is very cheap, but there is a lot of noise. We need to marry art and science for digital marketing. - Todd Tauber, Degreed

Increasing engagement cleverly is the only way to scale. There are several learning platforms but understanding each individual is the key to learning and development. - Ravi Kaklasaria, SpringPeople

Short film, everything compressed, is the future. People don't have the time to sit through three hours of historical epics anymore. - Naseeruddin Shah

With malware and hacking tactics getting more complex and sophisticated, our response strategies and approaches have to evolve and counter these aggressive moves. - Vinod Kumar, Subex

Digitising patient records has evolved very rapidly from a ‘good to have’ to a ‘must have’. - Shailesh Prithani, Doxper

Safety has remained the same for the last 100 years. Just padlocks with a bunch of keys. - Gotama Gowda Openapp

Today technology might not be able to emote meaningfully, but it will soon. - Ramki Gaddipati, Zeta

For venture debt what is important is that startups need to keep performing well and they continue to attract capital, but that capital is clearly available. - Vinod Murali, Alteria Capital

Every volunteer, while contributing to the change around themselves, undergoes a transformation of their own. Not a single volunteer just gives, what they take back is, almost always, the most cherished memory of the journey. - Soha Moitra, CRY

The best thing about home remedies is that you do not have to hunt for the formulae. You can make your own beauty concoctions in the comfort of your home with kitchen ingredients. - Bharti Taneja, Alps Beauty Clinic and Academy

The new currency of the internet is positivity. - Malini Agarwal, MissMalini Entertainment

No matter how much clarity you have, things keep changing. One has to be agile because nothing goes as planned. - Shalini Prakash, Epic.One

Good better best. Never let it rest. Until good becomes better and better becomes best! - Sandeep Pachpande, ASM Group of Institutes

The role of a founder has no boundaries. - Vidya Santhanam, Fitbots

Your location is no bar for your ambition. - Tripti Tiwari, CloudTrains Technologies

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).

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