ELECTION 99
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

Entrepreneurship @ Internet Speed

Arthur J Pais in Waltham, Massachusetts

Mukesh Chatter, CEO, Nexabit and Farooq Kathwari, CEO, Ethan Allen, Inc, are the keynote speakers at the annual TiEcon-Atlantic Conference. The banquet on Saturday night features dinner speaker, Lata Krishnan, VP, SMART Modular Technologies.

Some of the top names in the industry and academia will address the event to be held October 30 and 31 at Westin Hotel.

New technology has fueled the expansion of the Internet, allowing it to grow exponentially, leaders at The IndUS Entrepreneurs believe. In the Internet arena, creating technology for infrastructure is different from that of developing applications.

The conference is divided into three tracks, with the first addressing entrepreneurship in Internet-related infrastructure. The other two tracks will discuss the latest Internet applications for the most current and exciting industries.

Like other TiE conferences, this annual conference will provide an opportunity for networking with peers, other entrepreneurs, investors, and professionals. It also provides a forum for professionals who are committed to nurturing an entrepreneurial style in their companies.

Each session includes a panel of speakers addressing various topics including trends and developments, challenges in starting businesses, and success stories.

There will also be a comedy show by Alladin, the first south Asian stand-up comedian in America. DJ Mike provides the music.

TiE came into existence anecdotally in late 1992, when a group of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs with roots in the Indian sub-continent met by chance for a meeting with a visiting dignitary from India.

A delayed flight kept the group waiting, and provided an opportunity for people to get to know one another. It turned out that most of the assembled invitees to the meeting had achieved varying degrees of entrepreneurial success. It also turned out that they all had been long-term residents of the Bay area, and yet, mostly strangers to one another. The group saw value in getting together on a regular basis to network with one another. Thus, the idea of TiE was born as a mechanism for high achievement-oriented IndUS entrepreneurs to network.

For over a year, a group of about 10-15 individuals made it a habit to get together for monthly dinner meetings. A core group of seven -- A.J Patel, Kailash Joshi, Narpat Bhandari, Bipin Shah, Roy Prasad, Raidu Vridhula and Sam Sathya -- worked together to co-ordinate these meetings, and to keep the interest alive.

Suhas Patil, Kanwal Rekhi and Prabhu Goel, all successful veteran entrepreneurs, contributed to these meetings as speakers, participants and mentors. Gradually, the group started attracting greater participation, and the TiE concept started gaining momentum.

"Many of us had successfully got rid of the socialistic and bureaucratic mentality from back home and succeeded spectacularly in the new and free business atmosphere here," says Rekhi, the current TiE president. "We wanted to reach out and help new entrepreneurs. We decide to have an informal guru-chela relationship first in the Valley and then in other cities."

In 1993, the group established TiE as a formal, non-profit organization in Santa Clara, California, and elected Suhas Patil as its president, and Kanwal Rekhi as a director. A group of about 20 "charter members" pledged to contribute $ 1,000 each, every year, to capitalize TiE, and further, to volunteer time and energy towards TiE activities. TiE's charter was expanded to networking, mentoring entrepreneurs, and fostering entrepreneurship in general, and not just limited to Indus entrepreneurs. TiE also established a core set of values and ground rules to ensure that the organization would be high-minded, self-steering and meritocratic.

In late 1993, the group began putting together TiEcon, a two-day conference, as its heartfelt contribution to entrepreneurs. With no visibility on whether such a conference would be successful, the team spent money out of pocket in preparations for the event.

Held in March, 1994, and organized entirely through voluntary efforts, the conference attracted over 500 people, and proved to be a resounding success. This conference established a grand tradition, and solidly put TiE on the map.

TiE membership has now grown to over 700 members, 70 charter members, and three new chapters in Boston, Austin and Los Angeles.

TiE is also supported by over 20 institutions that include leading Silicon Valley venture capital investors, law firms, accounting firms and banks. Typical monthly TiE meetings are attended by over 100 people. Contacts made through TiE events have led to many senior TiE members taking on the roles of advisors and board members in start up companies. As of 1999, over three dozen start-up companies have benefited from TiE, and two have already made successful IPO's. TiEcon has become a premier event for entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley. For more information about the Atlantic conference and to register visit www.tie-atlantic.org.

If you would like to post any information about forthcoming events or community happenings, please email the details to bettypais@aol.com

Information and photographs can also be mailed to Betty Pais at 87-52 108th Street, 2nd Floor, Richmond Hill, NY 11418-2229, USA.

Tell us what you think of this information