India Post News Service
SANTA CLARA: TiE Silicon Valley held its annual convention, TiEcon 2008 at the Santa Clara Convention Center on May 16 and 17. TiE or The Indus Entrepreneurs also stands for Talents, Ideas, Enterprise of which plenty was in evidence at the eagerly awaited two-day conference.
A part of Silicon Valley’s annual calendar , the conference gets all components of the entrepreneurial cycle together- entrepreneurs, mentors, VCs, service providers, employees, along with the most important part- the IDEA. Ideas germinate in every part of the world but the chances of coming to fruition are exponentially higher in Silicon Valley and other such centers of innovation. TiEcon plays a major role in giving every budding entrepreneur with a halfway viable idea their 20 minutes in a one-to-one with a VC – at the E-Bazaar or Entrepreneurs Bazaar.
Talk of innovation and diversity and you could bump into fields as diverse as Cleantech- fuel cells for forklifts (Oorja Protonics) to social networks on mobiles (mig 33) to social entrepreneurship (Kiva Microloans). Shaukat Aziz, ex-President of Pakistan could talk about entrepreneurs in Pakistan and the business and social effects of the local TiE chapters while at another time Elon Musk, Chairman Tesla Motors, Solar City, Space-X could be driving up into the Convention Center in the much discussed and coveted Tesla electric sports car.
With something to interest every attendee, sessions like ‘Future Trends for Social Platforms: Killer Social Apps, Niche Social Networks, What’s Next?’ were packed to the rafters – the audience had to settle for leaning against the walls. With more elbow room required, tête-à-têtes are usually where pitches for funding happen. Business card exchange is de riguer when meeting someone new; networking is the name of the game at TiEcon.
Various service providers were also present at TiEcon including law firms, financial planners, and others. Health services providers like South Asian Heart Center provided screenings for South Asians- who are four times more prone to heart disease- of course, the stress most of them are subject to does not help. P.J. Gupta, Founder & President of Noca, a start-up which would like to redefine online payment services for the merchant and the consumer, said that he has been coming to TiEcon since 2000.
He feels that it is one of the best networking and meeting places around. Noca will go live in summer 2008. Sreedhar (Sree) Unnamatla, Founder & CEO, of Idntiti who won third place, out of around 250 nominees, in the Best Business Idea and Plan category said, "I took part in the E-Bazaar here. It has been a real good experience for me to sharpen and focus my pitch." In the E-Bazaar, he was able to connect with a VC firm, Mayfield, and will be following up with them.
He has been with the TiE mentor program for the last three weeks and feels it is very productive and useful. Mei Lin Ng, VP Marketing and co-Founder, mig 33 said about TiEcon, "It was a unique experience. It was great to share with the community the experiences and the learning we gained while building mig33. It was also insightful to learn some of the experiences that fellow panelists and other entrepreneurs had to share.
We look forward to our greater involvement with the TiE community as we look forward to expand our presence in South Asia. Notably the chat and cheap VoIP calling features has helped drive this adoption of mig 33 services. It’s great to see many Indians all around the world being a part of what’s next for mobile.
The Indian market is a great opportunity for mobile, and we look forward to doing more initiatives in this area shortly." Lisa Conte, Founder & CEO Napo Pharmaceuticals, was one of the distinguished speakers at TiEcon. She talked about how their first product, crofelemer, has applications for different gastro-intestinal diseases like Irritable Bowel Syndrome, for western markets, and cholera and dysentery for developing, emergent markets.
It is in trials for AIDS related diarrhea in the US and acute infectious diarrhea in India. The compound molecule of crofelemer is plant based. Napo has an Ayurveda based plant farm in Coimbatore, India. She was excited to be at TiEcon for the first time and looked forward to being back. With its theme of ‘Entrepreneurship Unbounded, Inspiration from the Frontlines’, TiEcon acknowledged no limits and pushed all boundaries.
Be it fuel cells, pharma from plants, social entrepreneurship to VC funding and how to raise money to make more money, TiEcon had advice from people in the trenches for every part of the entrepreneurship cycle. This depth and diversity of experience is what draws people from all walks of life in Silicon Valley and other places to TiEcon, year after year. Similar to the Tesla, TiE can get a newbie entrepreneur from 0-60 mph in 4 seconds!
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