‘Stay away from vanity metrics’ – 35 quotes from Indian startup journeys

From disaster relief to digital traction, 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 35 gems and insights from the week of November 29 – December 5 with your colleagues and networks, and check back to the original articles for more insights!

Focus on understanding real pain points of customers and what they want. Stay lean. - Amandeep Bhatia, Presso

Don’t wait until you have a churn problem. Get proactive on customer retention. - Vahishta Mistry

We live in an age of recurring miracles. - McKinsey Global Institute, ‘No Ordinary Disruption’

Digital enablement is helping bring enormous levels of efficiency to the ecosystem. - Namita Vikas, YES Bank

India’s book market, currently worth Rs 261 billion making it the sixth largest in the world and the second largest of the English language ones, is expected to touch Rs 739 billion by 2020. - Nielsen India Book Market Report 2015

The organised segment comprises 2-3 per cent of the entire laundry market. The online part will be close to 25 per cent of the organised segment, with significant growth potential. - Praveen Sinha, Jabong

About 42 million tons of scrap is recycled in India every year. - Mohneesh Bhardwaj, Kabaada.com

Thanks to advancements and innovations, our country can develop without coal and oil. - Rayyan Sheikh, Fatsmeagol

I always believed that my bat should do all the talking. - Sachin Tendulkar

For men, purchasing outfits is like a transaction. For women, the process is elaborate and personal; it is an experience rather than an activity. - Arjun Zacharia and Ankit Sabharwal, Wooplr

I am all for the Swachh Bharat mission. But in our country, a lot of things have been tried, a lot of money has been spent, but we have not seen results. - Suchi Mukherjee, Limeroad

Every young person has a need to know how to be safe in a world with HIV; prevention is critical where there is no cure. – Amala Akkineni, TeachAIDS India Trust

Since January this year, we have received over one lakh queries related to HIV/AIDS on our platform. - Saurabh Arora, Lybrate

Stay away from vanity metrics, just focus on business-oriented metrics. – Amit Kumar, Zimmber

This is 2015: wake up and smell the coffee! You need to think about user acquisition from Day 1. - Rohan Khara, Jabbercast

Be hard on the issues and soft on the people. – Kashyap Deorah, ‘The Golden Tap’

India has a ripe fintech market and enthusiastic masses, and everything good gets magnified hundred-fold. - Arifa Khan, ‘Fintech Storm’

In India at any point of time there are 30 million students enrolled in 36,000 colleges. - Ruchir Arora, CollegeDekho

Star women are born as much from their environments as from sheer personal determination. - Amrita Chowdhury, DY Works

There is a common notion that Indians cannot build well-designed hardware products. You will see this melting. - Ritika Dhyawala, Cloverboard

Beacon and Wi-Fi technology based proximity marketing platform is a win-win for both consumers and store owners. - Unni Peroth, bfonics

I want to solve a problem which no one has solved using technology and to bring it to the point where people can’t live without it. - Varun Khurana, Grofers

For Steve Jobs, product making was both science and art; but, in the end, it was business. – Ashutosh, AAP

Homemakers traveling in autos are often the ones who gather information for important decisions the family has to make. - Najeeb Narayanan, Yaatra Smart

While a high customer acquisition cost is an issue, a much more dangerous issue is high customer retention cost. - Prateek Agarwal, Bite Club

Indian enterprises are hesitant to try out new offerings. - Umesh Sachdev, Uniphore

Customer focus, humility and having fun are key principles we follow in everything we do. - Kartik Poddar, FropCorn

A lot of people struggle with being honest with themselves and a handful even acknowledge it. - Ekom Mamik, MoringaWhat

There are of course highs and lows like in any business, but it’s part of the experience. - Devika Srimal, Kanabis

Entrepreneurs take the plunge because they are not worried about getting wet in the rain; they love to dance in it. - Rachna Ghiya, CrispTalks.com

Everything small culminates into something big. - Kalyani Khona, Wanted Umbrella

Whatever the times are, never give up on your objective, it is your startup’s soul. - Prasant Naidu, Lighthouse

Grooming successors having a five-year window in mind, is perhaps a long-term strategic activity absolutely essential to the wellbeing of the startup. – Vinay Kanchan

The most crucial step is to provide people with better means to protect themselves against the acute health problem of air pollution. - Alexander Hjertström, Airinum

The best way to ensure justice is to empower the people who demand it. - Nishant Gambhir, Lex Do It

Even though this city has taken a beating, I realise it takes much more to pull down its people. - Evelyn Ratnakumar, Chennai

Schools and offices need to conduct awareness programmes on what to do in case of landslides and earthquakes. - Rajendra Ladkat, disaster management consultant

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).