‘A company without culture cannot build a sustainable business’ – 35 quotes of the week 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 35 gems and insights from the week of January 18-24 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.

Pitch the business and not the product. Investors want to know about the business and how it will scale, not only about the product and its features. - Stephanie Nguku, Upscale Consulting

Focus on solving problems that customers face and are willing to pay to fix. - Cyrus Irani, Metroguild

Work hard, love everyone and be the best version of yourself. - Minal Anand, GuruQ

Enthusiasm is common. Endurance is rare. - Angela Duckworth

‘Passion’ is a big word and a big motivator. If we truly own what we do and what we want to do, no one can stop us. - Yashika Keswani, Coolberg

One of the biggest signs that your diet is not working for you is the quality of your sleep. - Deepa Kannan, PFNR

Walking and just cutting down on your nutrients is not just the way forward. We overfeed our children and suddenly tell them to stop eating because they are putting on weight. - Prathima Koppolu, Fitb.ee

You must be truly happy within to spread happiness around. - Kaveri Sachdev, My Pooja Box

Even as we grieved, we grew. - Amanda Gorman

When you do not have expectations in life, the results you get are abundant. - Ankita Bansal, THERE!

By 2050, India will become the fourth most important economy in the world producing about 15 percent of global GDP. - Igor Borovikov, Softline

India is home to one of the world's youngest population, and by 2050, it is expected to account for over 18 percent of the global working-age population. - Arundhati Bhattacharya, Salesforce India

Amongst major states, the average innovation score is 25.35. Karnataka tops at 42.5. - India Innovation Index

Companies are keenly awaiting guidelines for a direct listing in overseas markets. The market sentiment remains positive for what could be a stellar 2021. - Sandip Khetan, EY India

This year you will see a lot of progress in the disintermediation of agriculture, and public sector banks will receive capital support. There will be increased support for the manufacturing sector and there will be announcements on electric mobility. - Siddarth Pai, 3One4 Capital

One has to be very well versed with the excise policies of India to grow in the alcohol or beverage industry. - Rishabh Ranjan, BEOR360

Retail distribution in India is on the cusp of a technology-led transformation. The distribution network continues to be broken and unorganised. - Pankaj Raina, Zephyr Peacock

The government need to take this opportunity to relook at university curricula and skilling programmes and update them with relevant digital-age skills. - Lakshmi Mittra, Clover Academy

Deaths and injuries from road traffic crashes are a major and growing public health epidemic. In 2019 alone, more than 1.54 lakh people were killed in road crashes across the country. - Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport and Highways

Today, brick kilns are the second-largest source of air pollution in India, and they consume millions of tons of soil, water, and coal. - Lokesh Puri Goswami, Angirus

Straw can be a raw material for making engineered panels/boards that are not only sustainable but thermally and acoustically superior to traditional materials. - Shriti Pandey, Strawcture

With wind energy being the cheapest, greenest source of new electricity in most geographies, it is critical to the future health of the globe. - Jerry Randall, Wind Pioneers

The EV of the future will not only be defined by the size of the battery pack but also by the efficiency of the chemistry that it uses. - Jubin Varghese, Gegadyne Energy

Several people face the issue of storing and safeguarding their household items when they are away from home. - Ramesh Babu Madisetty, Safe Storage

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As a culturally rich country, what did we lack artistically so as to make our global representation so caricatured and dismal? - AR Rahman

It takes a community to make a writer. We all have a story to tell. - Pratilipi

The funny thing about writing a memoir is that it forces you to look at things differently, reconciling so many things you thought you had put to bed. - Priyanka Chopra Jonas

Creativity is contagious. Pass it on. - Gayatri Sivaramakrishnan

The good guys on a mission, the bad guys on the take, the detectives, and the potential victims — without that, why read? - Katherine Eban, 'Bottle of Lies'

Trust in your individual talents and drives that inspire you, which may be far removed from the taught theory or ‘school of art. - Harini Narayan

We've seen the blitz growth and we know it doesn't mean anything because sustainable growth is what really matters. - Naveen Tewari, InMobi

Only by changing the pricing, we actually get to know what resonates with the market. - Krish Subramanian, Chargebee

A few key gaps persist especially at the seed and pre-seed stage: a truly global partner that can bring institutional resources and significant follow-on commitment even at the idea stage. - Nitin Sharma, Antler

While culture doesn’t guarantee success, a company without culture cannot build a sustainable business. - Krishna Kittu Kolluri, NeoTribe Venture

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).