‘Champions breed champions’ – 50 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 50 gems and insights from the week of November 11-17 with your colleagues and networks, and check back to the original articles for more insights. See also our compilation of 50 Quotes from Techsparks 2019 here.

If you don’t have a great product with great quality and pricing, you cannot win. - Manu Kumar Jain, Xiaomi

A startup should win the market by word of mouth and with the community. - Vikas Agarwal, OnePlus

Solving someone’s problem is a well-used path to innovation. - Giles Lury, 'Iconic Innovations'

Giving up is the greatest failure. - Jack Ma, Alibaba

One thing you do as a CEO is to consistently reiterate the values and vision. - Girish Mathrubootham, Freshworks

You cannot live your life to please others. The choice must be yours. - Anne Hathaway

Getting lost in being someone else will never give you happiness and satisfaction. - Stuti Sinha

Everyone wants to be a star! That's the truth. - Sania Mirza

With 7,200 startups, India is close behind UK with 11,864 startups and catching up to the US which had 41,500 startups as of 2018. - Mahendra Nath Pandey, Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship

There is so much trust deficit and friction in the finance space in India. Banks lead their processes with mistrust, while every other business has the tab system. - Chaitra Chidanand, Simpl

There are more than 950 million underbanked people in Asia alone. - Saurabh Gupta, Verismart

The majority of India’s population is unbanked! To tackle such challenges, we need to innovate specifically and uniquely to the Indian market. - Jaya Vaidhyanathan, BCT Digital

Speed is absolutely critical in the Asia-Pacific region, a dynamic hotbed for ambitious startups that are transforming the payments landscape. - Rama Sridhar, Mastercard

In the last few decades, higher education in India has hardly seen any innovation whether in curriculum or methodology. - Amit Somani, Prime Venture Partners

The Indian beverage market is witnessing an interesting transformation with an increased demand for new flavours. - Yashika Keswani, Coolberg

Indian corporations woke up after Walmart acquisition of Flipkart. It shook them to start looking at startups seriously. - Ninad Karpe, 100X.VC

Healthcare services industry in India is broken and full of disconnected parts. - Kiran Kalakuntla, ekincare

With increasing stress, bad eating habits, and pollution, hair loss is on the rise. - Saloni Anand, Tatva Health

Meditation not only increases productivity but also keeps stress at bay. - Kamlesh D Patel, Daaji

The demand for institutional care for the elderly is still in its nascent stages in India, and much of this responsibility still lies with familial caregivers. - Meena Ganesh, Portea Medical

India’s art scene is only getting better by the day. Social media plays a huge role in promoting art and artists. - Amit Verma, Shiny Colours

Our arts and crafts are the biggest contributors to design in this country. - Vinay Varanasi, Unbind Education

The marriage of digital technology and commerce will bring about unprecedented change that will not be limited by borders. - Daniel Zhang, Alibaba

The best way to achieve data quality at scale is to adopt a hybrid data extraction method — use automation wherever possible and develop custom configurations when there are complex websites. - Tony Paul, Datahut

Instagram has made everyone a photographer, TikTok has made everyone a dancer and an actor. - Kamal Kumar, Nojoto

The future of IT is to drive efficiency and to work on automated platforms. - Pradeep Kar, Microland

There is growing evidence now that blockchain-based payments networks can enhance cost efficiencies and create new opportunities for businesses. - Sopnendu Mohanty, MAS

In a protocol stack if the ball drops, everything crashes. You are allowed zero errors. - Sachin Shenoy, HealthifyMe

Supply chain is an area where enterprises can save high costs to improve its bottom line. - Soham Chokshi, Shipsy

There is a huge scope of improvement in after-sales operations of car repairs – in terms of process adherence, customer experience and adoption of technology. - Atishay Jain, Revive Auto

With the contribution of algo trading to overall trading volumes increasing day by day, the need for sophisticated risk systems has been on the rise. - Mihir Malani, Nerve Solutions

Providing clean data has become an important step for AI in logistics companies as many simply do not have usable figures to implement. - Sumit Sharma, GoBOLT

Design research or design ethnography can help in uncovering the “why” behind the data. - Param Venkataraman, Fractal Analytics

While technology must be leveraged to better enable the goal [of finding a partner] and widen the access, it can't replace that feeling of love at first sight. - Sunil Hiranandani, Sirf Coffee

Videos are always more engaging but editing them is a task. Most tools are very complex and desktop-centric. - Vikas Shrivastava, WhatsCut Pro

More women and diverse communities getting into tech means that more people’s problems are going to get solved. - Brenda Darden Wilkerson, AnitaB.org

Most gaming platforms are built for the young male audience and end up becoming a toxic place for girls. - Roby John, SuperGaming

The world has been created so that everything lives symbiotically. But humans and their ways have created a parasitic existence. - Garvita Gulhati, Why Waste

If every brand took the time to speak to their customers and walk in their shoes for a day they would create products that truly address their needs. - Divya Goenka, The Pink Moon

One of the biggest magnets to attract top talent to early and growth-stage startups is promising wealth creation through ESOP. - Satheesh KV, Flipkart

While diplomacy may be essential in business, at the core, there needs to be honesty. Only then can we work with a sense of purpose. - PC Musthafa, iD Fresh Food

Unless the criticism is constructive, it is unnecessary to be affected. - Tanya Shanker

Exchanging books will not only save money but will also save the environment. - Vihaan Khera, Book Barter

Resources are very limited in today’s world. Hence, the practice of reinventing unused or discarded materials and transforming them into brand new stuff is critical. - Siddharth Jaiswal, Sepoi

The two most important qualities that anyone who wants to be a writer needs to have are: a love of reading and patience. - Keshava Guha, Accidental Magic

Reading is a simple and inexpensive tool everyone has access to. It’s a great democratic tool. - Aniruddha Malpani, Malpani Ventures

Collaboration over competition should be the mantra. - Anupama Dalmia, Rhythms & Beats

Stories don’t lead to results. They lead to questions. Stories help children ask the question—why? - Geetha Dharmarajan

While the startup ecosystem is a little more aware in the ways it looks at talent, these companies still don't know how to solve for demand. - Vanishri Deshpande, ConnectEcho

Competition is tough but, it is important to embrace your uniqueness as a brand and stick to your core belief. - Raoul Mehra, JVAM Shoes

Having great work culture is not an option, it is a necessity. - Vani Kola, Kalaari Capital

It’s easy for a unicorn to build another. Champions breed champions. - Rajat Tandon, IVCA

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).

ALSO READ

The Top 10 Books of 2018 for Entrepreneurs