‘You need to believe in yourself because you are selling your vision’ – 30 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 30 gems and insights from the week of November 23-29 with your colleagues and networks, and check back to the original articles for more insights. See also our special compilation of quotes related to India’s coronavirus responses here.

People can win in markets where others don’t just by listening to customers, and do whatever it takes to make a customer happy. - Alok Goyal, Stellaris Venture Partners

Competition is great, as it will keep us on our toes. We can't make a mistake and we have to watch and wait for them to make mistakes. - Jaspreet Singh, Druva

Design thinking is to innovation what Six Sigma is to quality. - Pavan Soni, ‘Design your Thinking’

If one is curious about their work, everything falls into place. Seeing people describe their work reveals if they are proud of what they do. - Laks Srini, Zerodown

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As much as it is the founder’s job to tell the right story, it also is the investor’s job to elicit the right things in a pitch. - Rajat Agarwal, Matrix Partners India

Don’t put too much of a premium on how much your VCs understand about the market, because if they understood more than you, they probably would be in the market themselves. - Sameer Nigam, PhonePe

Entrepreneurship is not a cakewalk; it can get very daunting and tedious at times but then it’s also truly rewarding. - Manish Malhotra

The best articulation of both PMF (product-market fit) and GTM (go to market) is thin edge of the wedge. - Avnish Bajaj, Matrix Partners India

In the present scenario of uncertainty in economic growth and extraordinarily buoyant market, there is a dire need to further ramp up the investor education and awareness efforts. - Ajay Tyagi, SEBI

It’s challenging for technology companies to become successful on a global scale. Establishing a US entity allows them access to the best startup ecosystem in the world. -  Mark Milastsivy, Firstbase.io

There are two ways to grow the business — one is to increase the number of consumption occasions and the other is to expand the basket. - Ruppal Walia Sharma, SPJIMR

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You can't move India forward unless you're doing something for the 75 million SMEs that contribute to roughly a third of India's employment and half of our exports. - Puneet Chandok, Amazon Internet Services

Only four Indian cities show up on the global top 100 entrepreneurial cities in 2020. For a country that has 1/7th the world’s population, this is abysmally low. - Sunita Singh, Wadhwani Foundation

Bengaluru is startup heaven and has a very cosmopolitan culture. - Adarsh Shukla, WedMeBae

There is a new wave of fitness in India, with more people exploring different ways to incorporate an enjoyable workout experience. Indoor spinning will provide you with a unique feeling. - Nastassja Suri, Chakra Athletica

India is now one of the largest milk producers in the world, but more importantly, it has created this huge industrial network of value-added products. - Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Biocon

India is the largest grower and consumer of bananas in the world. But we had almost no presence in the international market. - Purnima Khandelwal, INI Farms

The EV sector in India, with the right vision and direction, can outpace any other country in the world with respect to technology innovation and its adoption. - Devender Singh Rawat, SUN Mobility

Today, India's renewable power capacity is the fourth largest in the world. It is growing at the fastest speed among all major countries. - Prime Minister Narendra Modi

The years starting from 2012-2013 were all about people launching startups. - Aayush Jindal, Asian Footwear

People want to solve urban problems, but not many are solving some basic problems in India. - Manish Piyush, Puresh Daily

The last patent in the sector of faecal sludge handling was made in 1966 for the vacuum tanker, before which we had the septic tank system standardised in 1940. Thereafter, we’ve seen nothing new. - Rakesh Kasba, JALODBUST

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The world has changed a lot in 2020, but for women, the world is changing every day: women have changed discourses and challenged spaces. - Isaivani

Inclusion is a prerequisite for building a diverse ecosystem. - Krishna Raghavan, Flipkart

There is an increasing sense of creating a work-life balance in offices because a majority of women still experience job spill over into the home. - Imaan Javan, Suntuity

In Tamil cinema, the role of a mother is often reduced to just that -- a homemaker, a caretaker, who serves the hero or heroine’s plot conveniently. - Drishya, 'B Selvi & Daughters'

We are all humans and connected with every other person on this planet. Giving access and possibility to everyone is true progress. - Shripriya Mahesh, Spero Ventures

Playing a sport is the most fun and engaging route to fitness. - Suhail Narain, Hudle

They say it is better to be poor and happy than rich and miserable, but how about a compromise like moderately rich and just moody? - Diana, Princess of Wales

Success enables exponential success. - Alexandre Lazarow, ‘Out-Innovate’

Sometimes, circumstances are such that you start doubting your own ability. But you need to come out of your comfort zone, and that needs effort. - Suresh Raina, GRF

You need to believe in yourself because you are selling your vision. - Manali Jagtap, MJ

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).