‘You just have to try everything at least once’ – 40 quotes from Indian startup journeys
From VC interactions to vernacular Internet, witness the memorable journey of Indian entrepreneurship in these excerpts and stories! 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 40 gems and insights from the week of September 6 - 12 with your colleagues and networks, and check back to the original articles for more insights!
Working at a startup means learning new things every day, challenging things and creating new benchmarks.
You need to knock on closed doors to find out what is there inside.
- Vijaya Pastala, Under the Mango Tree
Under no circumstances did we encourage short-term thinking.
- Sramana Mitra, One Million by One Million
Everything has a way of falling into place. God’s looking out for you.
- Alkesh Agarwal, Re-Feel Cartridge Engineering
Today travel is not a problem, real estate is.
Every entrepreneur has the opportunity to create her very own blockbuster epic.
- Vinay Kanchan, 'Lessons from the Playground'
Changing user behaviour is challenging but if you believe that’s where the world is headed, triggering the change can be very fruitful.
In this day and age, most people don’t even use the pen.
We don’t want to be Number One in China. We want to be Number One in the world.
You should just be an entrepreneur at heart.
Sports helps to build in skill sets including leadership, taking people along etc, something which has helped me in a big way in my entrepreneurial journey so far.
- Neetu Bhatia, Kyazoonga
To break the clutter and rise against the existing big players is the toughest task for us as a startup.
It doesn’t matter what disability you have, you just have to try everything at least once.
- Sharath M Gayakwad, Gamatics
The lessons from Silicon Valley to be learnt is that one man can symbolise success but success carries the brilliance of many.
Humility is very important for us; we believe that no problem or idea is small.
The fear of rebuke or rejection from family and friends is a challenge for Indian entrepreneurs.
- Raina Kumra, Mavin
If anything the problems have only made me stronger.
- Shefali Walia, Wetravelsolo
Excellence is achievable; don’t deal with mediocrity ever in life.
- Harini Ramachandran
Chat is eating the world.
The next 350 million users on the Internet would want to browse the web in their vernacular language.
- Vikram Chachra, Eight Capital
The Internet penetration will spread the reach of edtech segments, taking it inside the country.
- Shashank Pandey, Convegenius
I see massive scale and positive unit economics in the hyperlocal space.
- Vivek Bhiani, BedRock Venture
India has over 10 million local merchants.
People are becoming more adventurous with the food they want to eat.
- Reshma Sanghi, Out of the Box
Bus aggregation is a very large opportunity with a potential market of 5-10 thousand daily bus trips in each of the larger cities in India.
- Tarun Davda, Matrix Partners
Behaviour is tending towards on-demand world over.
At an estimated size of USD 105 Billion, India’s education sector is just slightly smaller than its IT sector.
- Akhil Shahani, The Shahani Group
It is quite exciting times to be in India where we have the world’s toughest problems in hand followed by the intellect to solve it.
The greatest satisfaction and joy came from the priceless reward that comes when farmers whose lives depend on your efforts appreciate what is being done for them.
- Dr. Verghese Kurien
A competitive market with lots of new startups is actually a good thing; a sign of high demand for new thinking.
- Manohar Chapalamadugu, Agile CRM
Authors need to think like entrepreneurs.
- Naveen Valsakumar, Notion Press
I believe the VC firm should be the partner for the founder.
If you don’t have the guts to sack, you are not a good founder.
Only founders and employees of startups are responsible for defining the culture of companies and paint the overall picture of Indian startup ecosystem. Let’s do so.
This is the most exciting time for fintech.
- Sankar Krishnan, ‘The Power of Mobile Banking’
Contrary to popular belief, not many meetings happen on the beach in Goa!
Kerala is a place that offers real hope for the future of the Third World.
- Bill McKibben
Waste management is every citizen’s responsibility.
- Sandeep Garg, Green Brick Eco Solutions
Men are dumb, whereas women are at the helm of a family affair.
- Inir Pinheiro, Grassroutes
Everyone, from companies to universities, is realizing that more women are required in the STEM workforce.
- Nisha Holla
Respect every man but let no man disrespect you.
- Payal Agarwal, Romharsh Hospitality Group
To me a woman who is financially independent is very powerful. She has the ability to say yes. She also has the ability and strength to say no.
- Caroline Fernandes, Vibha
When you reach the top, never forget those people whom you met while climbing the stairs of success.
- Prajyot Mainkar, Androcid Media
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).