Launched in 2014, StoryBites is a regular feature from YourStory, featuring notable quotable quotes in our past articles. Share these gems and insights with your colleagues and networks, and check back to the original articles for more insights.

With the worst of the pandemic behind us (but not completely gone), this has been a time of change and upheaval for startups. Digital transformation and D2C movements have spurred a range of investor opportunities, with markets opening up beyond urban pockets.

Drawn from our comprehensive coverage of the entrepreneurship ecosystem, we present 70 quotes from investors, analysts and founders. See also our earlier compilations from 2021, 2020 and 2019.

We have divided these 50 quotes into ten categories: Foundations, Problem and pitch, Talent and teams, Early stages, Fundraising, Business health, Downturns, Inclusion, Sustainability, and The road ahead.

YourStory wishes all Founders and funders a Happy New Year, with much success and scale ahead in 2023!

Foundations

Founders today are looking for more than just investors – they want long term partners that understand consumer trends and brands and have a long-term mindset. - Nicholas Cator, Venturi Partners

A good venture capitalist can ensure exponential growth in your networks and find you relevant connections for any business needs. It opens access to an entire ecosystem, often difficult to reach for bootstrapped founders. - Abhishek Goenka, RPSG Capital Ventures

Founder time is the most precious commodity in our world, and we want to be very respectful of that so we can provide teams with as much forward momentum as possible. - Nilesh Balakrishnan, WaterBridge Ventures

The decision of an entrepreneur is based on speed with accuracy coming second, but it is the other way for an investor. - Ashish Kumar, Fundamentum Partnership

It makes logical sense for an angel network to launch a VC fund as it allows them to write larger cheques for startups that require this (money) for their next stage of growth. - Padmaja Ruparel, IAN

Progressive companies are looking at extending their ESOP pools to cover a larger number of employees across grades. Also, we see an increasing number of startup founders topping up the pool with subsequent rounds of funding. - Lakshman Gupta Kanamarlapudi, Qapita

Problem and pitch

At a broad level, there are only three basic value propositions. The product or service can be cheaper, better, or faster. - Vidur Vyas, NorthSide

Find and focus on solving genuine, real-world problems — bells and whistles can wait. - Prabhash Nirbhay, Jharkhand Angels

A good pitch is a combination of brevity and clarity. - Abhilash Sethi, Omnivore

The perfect pitch deck provides a significant vision of the company, validates it with data, and is clear in its ask. - Sailesh Ramakrishnan, Rocketship.vc

Be true to your story and 100 percent committed. Make a simple pitch deck and put important data points upfront. - Saloni Jain, SUNiCON Ventures

Talent and teams

It’s not the business model that you invest in, it’s the founder. - Abhishek Rungta, Seeders VC

One can have the best idea in the world but it might never get off the ground without a good team in place. - Ankur Bansal, Blacksoil

At the end of the day, it is mostly about execution. That defines the success of a great entrepreneur. - Ashmeet Sidana, Engineering Capital

The only mandatory thing for every entrepreneur whether in the 40s, 50s or even 60s is ample perseverance and self-belief. - Ankit Kedia, Capital A

As a business grows and moves from agility to stability, companies start by hiring multitaskers and then seek out domain experts. - Jinesh Shah, Omnivore

Mentoring without capital is useless as much as capital without mentoring. - Naganand Doraswamy, Ideaspring Capital

Even if you are not investing, there’s no need to be harsh. The person hearing those words will never forget what you said. - Ghazal Alagh, Mamaearth

When you are fresh out of college, you might have education and great ideas, but unless you are born into a business family, the necessary human and financial capital would take time to earn. - Ankit Kedia, Capital A

Early stages

We see early-growth rounds as an amazing investment opportunity to back founders at a critical inflection point in their venture journey. - Anirudh A Damani, Artha Select Fund

Early-stage startups will be able to raise capital more easily as they are typically more insulated than late-stage deals from fluctuations in the public markets. - Amit Nawka, PwC India

Early stage startups need easier access to non-dilutive funding, they also need mentorship from founders and operators, and a community to empower and learn from. - Prayank Swaroop, Accel

At early-stage, founders need a believer rather than an investor and remove a lot of fundraising headaches. - Vishwanath V, 8i Ventures

There is a strong need for approachable institutional capital support for early-stage founders. - Abhishek Rathi, Fundamental VC

Raising too little, raising too much, raising ahead of product market fit are all challenging. - Dipanjan Basu, Fireside Ventures

When you have finite resources, you can't build everything. - Manu Rikhye, growX ventures

Traditional investors look at startups who have traction or founders with pedigree but it is the angels who are investing into the business or mere ideas on paper. - Venk Krishnan, Nu Ventures

Fundraising

Access to capital and fundraising is one of the important aspects of growth for any business. - Bhavik Vasa, GetVantage

Good businesses are never out of funding. - Ruchir Arora, CollegeDekho

When it rains, you open an umbrella. - Masayoshi Son, SoftBank

The Total Addressable Market (TAM) is the most important aspect of looking at potential investment in a company. - Ashutosh Sharma, Prosus Ventures

Effectively, VCs can help the venture stabilise for the next phase of growth. - Amit Sharma, Cactus Venture Partners

Viewed from an early investors’ perspective, a startup evolution is a relay, the baton of lead investor being passed on from one to another as the startup navigates through multiple funding rounds to reach scale. - Ashwin Raguraman, Bharat Innovation Fund

Sometimes, companies are unable to raise funding due to the timing and the market sentiment. - Ganapathy Venugopal, Axilor Ventures

Business health

Managing your finances can be tough, but attempting to do so without having the right mindset is even tougher. - Mandar Marathe, Koppr

The predictability of a subscription business model is extremely attractive. - Tejeshwi Sharma, Sequoia India

Better corporate governance is a shared responsibility between founders, management and the board. And to get there the ecosystem needs to come together and commit to some changes. - Sequoia Capital India

I believe in focusing on both growth and profitability at the same time. If you have got the right model and the right basic unit economics, you can focus on both and the rest falls into place. - Nandan Nilekani

Compounding will bestow its magic and benefits upon you only after a very long time, after testing your patience and conviction to the fullest. - Gautam Baid, Stellar Wealth Partners

No matter which stages a startup is in, they would do well to keep a close tab on core business and ensure unit economics is strict as per plan. - Amit Nawka, PwC India

Most businesses fail due to the mismanagement of their short-term and long-term funds. - Ravi Modani, 121 Finance

Scale is an outcome of solving the most important problems for businesses. - Nilesh Kothari, Trifecta Capital