‘Online retail has become a national phenomenon’ – 30 quotes from Indian startup journeys

From e-learning to e-commerce, 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 30 gems and insights from the week of June 6-12 with your colleagues and networks, and check back to the original articles for more insights!

When you plan to start your own business, you must let it consume you. - Rices Obliquity

There isn’t a ceiling – glass or otherwise. All there is are opportunities. - Sanya Kapoor, Magikbox

India’s top 100 cities account to almost 70-80% of retail sales. - Vishal Mehta, Infibeam

Online retail has become a national phenomenon. - Amit Agarwal, Amazon India

India is the fastest growing ad market among all the major markets of the world. - Shashi Pandey, i-Connect

Agriculture sector is ripe for disruption. - Alekh Sanghera, farMart

The entry-level jobs sector is a massive opportunity that is yet to be solved. - Harshad Lahoti, ah! Ventures

The average usage of a car in a year is less than 150 days. For nearly 200 days a year, a personal car sits in your garage. - Sakshi Vij, Myles

We have to accept that above-ground water conservation has failed and time has come to adopt underground rain water harvesting for water security. - Vijay Kedia, BITS Pilani

BOP market is significantly different to a general mass market and socents have inherent advantage over big corporates when selling to them. - Rohan Potdar, RCM

Phones can help increase financial inclusion. - Umesh Sachdev, Uniphore

The app market is currently overcrowded and it is not easy to stand out. Chatbots and Messenger platforms eliminate this friction. - Raghu Ravinutala, Yellow Messenger

Chat bots are a hype cycle just like the virtual reality glass. - Abinash Tripathy, Helpshift

VC investing is, even in the best of times, a risky business and needs a strong human element, especially when evaluating the quality of the founders. – Shubhankar Bhattacharya, Kae Capital

Valuations are based on what is going to happen in future. It can only be guessed and no one can predict accurately. - Neeraj Jain, Zopper

Going forward, funds will look at technology as a differentiator and will ask for anchor customers. - Naganand Doraswamy, IdeaSpring Capital

People judge the book by its title, that holds true even for videos. - Pardeep Goyal, StartupKarma

A pitch is an act of persuasion; a way to prove yourself. Your pitch should tell the story of your startup. - Radha Kizhanattam, Unitus Seed Fund

Never fear competition. Focus only on your customers and build a great product. - Abhishek Goel, StrollUp

Be aware about what is in the market – try to be ‘hatke’ and not a second copy of something else. - Ashish Mittal, TurningIdeas

A good yoga teacher is a good yoga student as well. - Pragya Bhatt, yoga teacher

Learn and accelerate. - Som Singh, Unspun Academy

It’s not how far you fall, but how high you bounce that counts. - Zig Ziglar

If you want employees to be innovative, reward them for every new idea. - Sarah L. Fogleman, Kansas State University

A good board can’t make a company, but a bad one will inevitably kill it. - Barry Weinman

I can’t imagine cricket without sound. - Brett Lee, Global Hearing Ambassador

India cannot afford to follow the Western model of inequitable growth or the Chinese ‘grow now, pay later’ model. - Benedict Paramanand, ‘SustainabilityNext’

Bengaluru has one of the lowest road densities among big cities, at only 8.2 km per sq km which is almost one-third of Delhi. – Nandan Nilekani

Composting your kitchen waste cuts down your garbage disposal by about 95%. - Sohini Mukherjee, Chumbak

We will start planting a tree for every customer who enrolls for our service from June 5, which is World Environment Day. – Green Salute carwash

We humans have destroyed this planet and we are the only species who can fix it. - Mike Pandey

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).