Chief Executive Officers

"While I am disappointed that we have come to this conclusion and my bid was rejected, I am supportive of the company and I intend to be a bidder, she wrote. I have resigned as CEO of the company so I can be in the best position to pursue the company as an independent bidder"

"The future,Wojcicki said, is dripping with possibilities"

"I found that few aspects of healthcare actually were in my best interest,” Wojcicki said. I would like to just stay healthy and to never use healthcare, but I found that almost no aspects of what I was investing in were focused on ‘How do I stay out of the system"

"Having the confidence to revisit what I’d written and spend time in the moment helped me to tell a better story. Sometimes it’s the smallest details that bring a character to life"

"Whether you're in a relationship or not should not dictate whether or not you have the ability to have children,Wojcicki told Forbes. I'm very stubborn. When there's something I want to do, I get it done"

"I think also going forward, we must emphasize on growing broadband infrastructure, and not just growing it for the sake of it but catalyzing its adoption and usage, nationwide."

"I can only aspire to be as creative as [my father has] been in his career,” she says. “But that was always an influence on me: Don’t assume that the answers are out there in the form of somebody else already doing something. Sometimes they are. But you have to think beyond that. You have to think that the answer and the right answer for you and your organization might not be something that’s been done before. And it’s up to you to discover and work with your team to form and figure out how to do successfully"

"It’s a very independent kind of a job where you set your own direction on a day-to-day basis. You have a lot of demands and a lot of deliverables, but you actually have a lot of control over planning your time. You obviously have to be responsible and deliver your results, but there are a lot of different ways that you can do that"

"I can honestly say that rejections have made me a better writer. I tried to take on board any feedback I was lucky enough to receive, was spurred on to find out as much as I could about the industry, and I learned to bounce back when disappointments arose. Because of these experiences, I fully appreciate how far I have come, and I think this will help me to face the inevitable ups and downs that come with being an author"

"I got the stock-picking bug,she says. I enjoyed the intellectual challenge, and I liked interacting with the fund managers"

"If I am fortunate enough to secure the company’s assets through the restructuring process, I remain committed to our long-term vision of being a global leader in genetics and establishing genetics as a fundamental part of healthcare ecosystems worldwide"

"There is no doubt that the challenges faced by 23andMe through an evolving business model have been real, but my belief in the company and its future is unwavering"

"Keep moving, don’t get hung up on being a perfectionist"

"My father was interested in technology and impressed upon me how important it was to business"

"We were raised to not shy away from conflict. That quality has helped me focus on what I believe is the right thing to do and manage the conflict and criticism that has come our way"

"In the workplace I was quick to understand that some people might be offended that I was female, that I was African-American, or that I was young, but I had to let that be their problem. The best thing I could do was just focus on doing a good job, and let my work speak for me. If someone said something offensive to me, I just let it be. I refused to pick up the stone and put it in my knapsack."

"First, honored, and then, “Oh my God.” (laughs) Obviously I’ve been on the Board of Trustees for a while, and we have been addressing the issues that you would expect in an enterprise of this size: strategically where we are going, what do we need to achieve and what’s important in terms of the investments we need to be making going forward. So, I thought to myself, “If there’s something I can do to help, I’m glad to do it."

"Imagine an onion. The center is the people. The layer outside is the product. The external layer is the process. The process makes sense when you have a product, and it's only through the motivation of the people that you make a product. This is the way I see the company. And if you see the company this way, you have to start with the people."

"Strategy isn't something you define once and follow forever. It’s like a white line on the road: you keep adjusting."

"I’d like to see the university take the wonderful things that are already happening and make them better. I want us to have that culture of: Yes, we did a good job, but if we work on it — if we try something a little different, if we bring in some other people — we can add another dimension to what we’ve already achieved."

"When you change the culture of a company, it's never a revolution. It's an evolution."

"And today I think Nykaa's 'brand reality' is ahead of its 'commercial reality," she said. "I go to the smallest towns, like two hours away from Manali, and the little girls know Nykaa. So I think the brand is what I really value the most"

"Decision-making will not always be easy, and often there will be no straightforward answer. So, trust your gut to an extent, it will guide you well"

"And remember, no matter what anyone says, it is never too late to start all over again"

"Don't be afraid to take risks along the way. You are blessed to be entering a world that is now increasingly risk-friendly. Spend the early years of your career taking the right risks and make some bold bets on yourself. Test what you like and what you don't. Take on roles that put you outside of your comfort zone and challenge yourself"

"Be intentional and focused"

"Keeping the ship at an even keel can help weather the travails of running an enterprise through the highs and lows"

"Age is no bar"

"I think what business you choose to build should be based on conviction; it doesn't have to be your favourite product or anything like that. I saw a business case and a business need for beauty. And that's what I chose"

"Sense the opportunity"

"We've spent the last decade building a truly omnichannel beauty ecosystem, one that spans across all channels to serve the modern Indian consumer. We believe that focus on both online and offline retail — is critical for both beauty brands and beauty consumers. Today, we are proud to announce that we have crossed the 250 stores milestone. This makes us the largest network of beauty specialty stores in India, with a presence in 82 cities. Our physical retail business is not only expanding its footprint, but it is also doing so profitably"

"We launched Nykaa Fashion to meet two key market needs: the vast potential of the fashion industry and a growing consumer desire for a trend-focused, premium shopping experience. We've stayed true to this vision, focusing on curating a high-quality assortment and enabling discovery"

"I was aware of the e-commerce in US so we thought if we could marry e-commerce with the problems of Indian beauty industry and come up with a multi-brand retailer having a focus to deliver beauty experience to e-commerce will be the right way to go ahead"

"Since then, consumers from the old age group are also buying beauty products, but the initial success was from millennials"

"Nykaa is well positioned for success as we are operating in this high growth environment where BPC and Fashion are the fastest-growing categories in discretionary consumption. The online BPC market alone is projected to grow threefold from FY25 to FY30, reaching $15 billion. Similarly, the online fashion market is projected to more than triple in the same period, reaching $60 billion"

"I really like the beauty industry. It's a fantastic industry. I know most of the big players in the industry, the CEOs and their senior management teams....And it's a good business. I really love the brand-building aspect of the business. Happy place, I would say, definitely"

"For women there are no glass ceilings. Women need to dream for themselves. The empowerment and support has to come from home. From family, you need to be empowered to pursue your dreams than what companies do. I am a big believer that women empowerment has to begin at home"

"We are a very open organisation. We listen to our customers and all the ideas come from them. They tell us to bring this particular brand or open a store here. We have been very active on social media"

"I wish I had a co-founder from the technology field, that would have given me a great start"

"Stripe and Paystack are both Y Combinator alumni, so that was the first point of contact. We were introduced to Patrick, who then offered to invest. Stripe would then lead our Series A, and along with Visa, invest $8 million in 2018. Since then, Stripe has been a close partner, and after over two years of knowledge exchange between our teams, we've built up a lot of mutual respect for each other. Eventually, it became obvious that our visions were so aligned that the natural evolution of the relationship would be to join forces in this way."

"Businesses are bought, not sold. The most important thing is to choose a problem you are excited about solving, and focusing on that every day."

"All acquisition conversations always require careful thought and consideration, and it was no different in this case. The Paystack team has been interacting with Patrick and the Stripe team over the past couple years and after significant amounts of collaboration and knowledge exchange between both companies, we agreed that this move was a natural evolution of what was and continues to be a great relationship."

"Venture-backed companies are generally destined for one of two outcomes. IPO or acquisition. Five years in, neither of these were on the list of things that we care about as a company. We’ve always been focused on building the best payments and growth tools for African businesses and are in it for the long haul. The option to team up with the world’s most sophisticated payments company to accelerate our ambitions happened to show up, and we believe it was fortuitous."

"I have always said there are no glass ceilings. I don’t think men are waiting to not allow women to do what they want. I think women have to want it for themselves. And if they want it for themselves, they will have it"

"Solutions to hard work is persistence and resilience."

"Build something remarkable, be resourceful enough to find places where you can articulate what you are doing."

"Figuring out a market that is growing is some of the things people look out for."

"It is important to think of your co-funders and your partners as people you are going to be on a long journey with."

"Today, there is a generational shift happening. When I started, there were only nine women in a class of 150 students in our MBA school. When it came to their life journeys, a lot of women used to give up. But today’s new generation of women are not giving up. It is important to be able to juggle between personal life and work at that point of time (when you are getting married, becoming parents) because I feel you should continue working even if you take a break for some time."

"What I really appreciate is people who build brands. And that also is something I am a very keen observer of. What I'm really proud of is the brand Nykaa and how we built that. And it was a very conscious attempt to really build a very consumer-loved brand. And I put in a lot of effort, both organisational and personal effort towards building the brand"