India Post News Service

SAN FRANCISCO: TiE Silicon Valley held its first entrepreneurial mixers at the Thirsty Bear Brewing Company on Howard Street in San Francisco, California on March 11 and April 30. "Entrepreneurship Unbounded Inspiration from the Frontlines" is the theme for this year’s TiECon on May 16-17.

With that in mind, Gen Y attendees and entrepreneurs held forth on start-ups from a ground floor perspective- the trials and the glory, the inspiration that drives them onwards when things go wrong, which they often do. Life in a start up holds more in common with a roller coaster ride than a staid business and you have to expect the unexpected.

As TiE says about this year’s TiECon, "Instant global connectivity and transformative business models are erasing boundaries and crumbling barriers - for sharing ideas and information, getting financing, talent, and gaining customers.

These mega forces are coming together to unleash the next generation of entrepreneurship that promises to decisively alter the economic and social landscape. Entrepreneurs ranging from Gen Y to Baby Boomers are seizing opportunities from this new, unbounded landscape". After networking, cocktails, and some inspirational words, people mingled while a group of advisors, angel investors and venture capitalists answered questions for aspiring entrepreneurs.

The Thirsty Bear lived up to its name, suitable for the ‘thirsty’ for ‘bear’ (beer) as well as the ‘thirsty for knowledge’ crowd. The Web 2.0 (mostly) successful start-up founders attending included Ashwin Navin, President of Bittorrent, Seth Kenvin, CEO at Market7, Inc. ,Ramu Yalamanchi, CEO, hi5 Networks, Nitin Bhandari, CEO of Skyfire and Rajeev Raman, CEO of MyWaves, and Ani Chaudhary, Founder of Opelin along with Krishna Vedati, CEO & Co Founder, plusmo and Sumaya Kazi, Executive Director and Founder, The CulturalConnect.

TiE, a not-for-profit global network of entrepreneurs and professionals, was founded in 1992 in Silicon Valley. TiE stands for Talent, Ideas and Enterprise and is an open and inclusive organization that has rapidly grown to more than forty five chapters in ten countries.

TiE endeavors to cultivate and nurture the ecosystem of entrepreneurship and free-market economies everywhere, as it sees this to be the single most powerful instrument of prosperity.