‘Stay with a problem for at least a few years to actually learn’ – 55 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 35 gems and insights from the week of June 1-7 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 across the world are more aware of terms like sustainability now. - Benorita Dash, Tilotama

Sustainable agricultural technology can transform the global food landscape. - Sangeeta Bavi, Microsoft India

As the nation practises strict social distancing during this pandemic that has led to reduced human activities and movement, we all have noticed that the environment has healed itself like never before. - Kailash Kher, 'Ek Soch Hai Jaagi'

There are small steps that you can take to save the planet and be more conscious in your daily lifestyle. - Shreya Kothari, Verth

Choose fair-trade certified goods when possible to support the industry dedicated to sustainable production, which also pays labourers a fair wage. - Arpit Srivastava, Lenzing Group

Mass-produced products with so many chemicals in it can actually harm the development of the fetus, which so many women are unaware of. - Ashwini Gaikar, Surprise Elements

The ayurvedic treatment takes long, but it has the prospect to cure as it works on an individual and not the disease. - Anand Srivastava, Maharishi Ayurveda

When you grow your food, you understand its importance and the person who's growing them. - Nupur Agarwal, KIWI

A lot of millennial parents today are extremely conscious about what their children consume as part of their healthy diet. - Aswani Chaitanya, Timios

Plantain chips help your gut and are much better for you than potato chips bought in a store or in a bag! - Deepa Kannan, PFNR

Consumers are continuing to broaden their concepts of snack foods beyond potato chips and cookies. - Vikram Agarwal, Cornitos

While it is essential for single mothers to have health insurance plans, do not rush things. Take your time and understand the market and the products before you decide. - Prakash Chandra Kandpal, SBI GICL

Every cancer person's treatment is individualised, and so is their coping strategy. - Niti Raizada, Fortis Hospital

Corporates have realised that the healthier their employees are, the fewer holidays they tend to take. - Deepak Grover, Snack Amor

Physical activity is extremely significant to everyone’s life, especially when it comes to children and adolescents. - Prabhat Sinha, Mann Deshi Champions programme

One of the biggest things people struggle with in urban mobility is loneliness, not understanding the language and culture that creates a lot of animosity, anger, and differences. - Nithya J Rao, Heart It Out

One needs to be careful about what one says. People can body shame you online and say anything they want. - Saloni Gaur

The startup community in India has pushed all boundaries of innovation, and are going at light speed to make a difference. - Tasleem Arif, OPPO India

As Indian consumers become more affluent, a larger share of wallet is spent on health and wellness. - Deepak Shahdadpuri, DSG Consumer Partners

India has 30 unicorns today. In the next two decades, this number can be in the hundreds. - Rajiv Srivatsa, Antler

85 percent of the gold supply in India is primarily met through imports, less than one per cent coming from local mining and about 10 percent from recycling. - Rahul Joseph, White Gold

The problem in India is not on lending, but on the collections side, since it is easier to give the money than take it back. - Rishabh Goel, Credgenics

Demand for assisted reproductive treatments far exceeds the supply across the country. - Ben Mathias, Vertex Ventures SEA & India

Chikungunya has emerged as an important public health problem in India. The development of an effective Chikungunya vaccine will be a game changer in the global health sector. - Renu Swarup, BIRAC

India is a massive market for eggs, yet there aren't any good plant-based alternatives yet. - Ryan Bethencourt, Wild Earth

Cannabis, commonly known as ‘bhang’, is one of the five sacred plants in our Vedas. - Rohit Shah, Hemp Horizons

Indian agriculturalists are fighting a drastic reduction in the availability of locally grown food for India's large population. - Bhumi Chheda, Vatika

While most entrepreneurs are trying to find their big break in the ecommerce and Internet domain, India’s retail sector is ripe for disruption. - Amit Bansal, Rolling Banners

Indian data should always be secured on Indian servers. - Shivank Agarwal, Mitron TV

Who are our icons? Who made Hindi cinema what it is today? There is no such project in public places. - Ranjit Dahiya, Bollywood Art Project

Art, like other fields, needs to be infused with new experiments using modern day art materials or gadgets. - Veena Rao

Women also play a hugely important role in economic development, and for too long their contribution has been ignored. - Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Biocon

Racism is a lamentable thing. - Masayoshi Son, SoftBank

I don’t want a Black History Month. Black History is American History; there is no White History month. - Morgan Freeman

South Korea is like a window to global expansion. When you make collaborations with international companies like Hyundai, Samsung, LG, etc., you also get the advantage of extending services to other countries. - Matei Psatta, TPS Engage

Southeast Asia is at an inflection point in digital adoption that creates new opportunities to deliver financial services to previously unbanked merchants and consumers. - Farhad Maleki, PayPal

When you don’t have enough companies that are mentored by accelerators, there are going to be multiple companies making the same mistake again and again. - Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, 9Unicorns

The key for any price increase, however, is to keep them psychologically reasonable. Consumers have widely-accepted understandings of what constitutes “fair” and “unfair." - Lokesh Aryan, Intelligence Node

The processes for various kinds of shutdown/winding up is prescriptive and lengthy. It also takes a long time to shut down an entity. - Ashwin Bhat, NovoJuris Legal

It is crucial, as is the case with any metric, to understand the customer churn rate correctly and measure it accurately. - Shripati Acharya, Prime Venture Partners

Simply paying deliberate, conscious attention to opportunities for knowledge-sharing can confer huge benefits. - Dorothy Leonard, ‘Critical Knowledge Transfer’

Wisdom means rejecting the feeling of knowing. - Francesca Gino, 'Rebel Talent'

Traditionally, market intelligence has been accessible to only top companies who have dedicated budgets to spend. - Chaitanya Kumar, Etta.ai

Digital is going to be the next way forward. All the businesses are having a digital transformation at an exponential rate now as compared to the last five years. - Pooja Goel, Pink Collar Professionals

The first wave of growth in the renewable energy industry came through the addition of physical assets on the ground, the next wave will come through the development of digital products. - Sumant Sinha, ReNew Power

Four major trends that are shaping the future of the automobile industry are clubbed together under the acronym C.A.S.E. The acronym stands for Connected, Autonomous, Shared and Electric. - Hideaki Ishii San, Pioneer India

The opportunity to take an old school industry and transform it with technology is vast. - Pranav Tiwari, Nurture.farm

The very best innovators don’t adapt to a changed world – they anticipate it. - Madge Meyer, 'The Innovator's Path'

You make your money with your successes, but you make your reputation with the failures. - Anand Chandrasekaran, Five9

Creativity completes the art of storytelling that your Annual Report does on behalf of your company. - Hussain Kalolwala, K&A

Work on both - build a rational and emotional argument. Founders already have a lot of things stacked against them. So what works is preparing for both. - Mithun Srivatsa, Blowhorn

It is important to interact and share your experiences, both good and bad. - Savita Punia

If you don’t take risks, you will always work for someone who does. - Romil Bahl

If one dream should fall and break into a thousand pieces, never be afraid to pick one of those pieces up and begin again. – Flavia Weedn

Lack of resilience and staying power affects the depth and gravity of problems you can solve. Stay with a problem for at least a few years to actually learn. - Gaurav Agarwal, 1mg

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).