Shaukat Aziz, Pakistan ex-prime Minister, keynotes TiE Global charter member event

TiE Global Charter member reception was an excellent event, starting with a keynote from Shaukat Aziz, Prime Minister of Pakistan from 2004 to 2007, and a former executive of Citi Bank. The keynote was followed by a panel of TiE's global chapter members, moderated by Ashok Rao, film producer, which discussed the challenges and successes of their efforts to build and scale their TiE organizations.








Ashok Rao, Executive Producer of the Merchant Ivory film, "Before the Rains", starring Rahul Bose, Nandita das, Linus Roache, and Jennifer Ehle, screened the trailer of the movie for the global audience. The global TiE charter members, from Europe, Canada, India, Malaysia, Japan, Singapore, and many other countries, continued networking at the banquet reception, which featured a live band playing foot-tapping Bollywood hits.

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TiE has been a culture-shifter in Silicon Valley

TiE HAS SPAWNED MANY COMPANIES...John Boudreau of Mercury News covers TiE's history and it's contribution to fostering entrepreneurship. He say, a study by Duke University that examined 2,054 engineering and tech companies founded from 1995 through 2005 revealed that 52 percent of valley start-ups had at least one immigrant as a key founder. Indians represented about 26 percent of start-up founders. Read more here.

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TiE chapters across the world

E-Bazaar a VC's perspective- Part 2

Lara Druyan, a top notch VC in silicon valley is a General Partner at Allegis Capital. Lara believes that when a company approaches VCs for funding, it should put itself in VC's shoes and think about what it wants as an investor. VCs get convinced more when they are told about what they get as an investor and not only the product that the company is working on. A VC according to Lara, as an investor wants
1) to focus on BIG markets
2) a good quality team
3) a defensible technology


Concentrating solely on technology in the pitch is not a good idea, she says. In other words, the technology should reach a point where it will be marketable and usable among the end users sooner - it's better to fail early so that you can make adjustments while you still have money. VCs also expect the team to have a highly qualified techie person on the team if the company is about hitech product. It makes more sense if the company is honest upfront about the resources and people they are lacking so that VCs can help fill in holes on the executive team. Knowing what you know or even don't know is of utmost importance, she says. Watch the video -- Neha Dadhbhawala from TiECon Live team interviews Lara Druyan to understand the functional skills VCs looks mostly in entrepreneurs in the E-Bazaar event of TiECon 2008.

TiECon 2008, the world's largest convention for entrepreneurs is being held on 16th and 17th May 2008 at Santa Clara Convention Center in silicon valley. More information on www.tiecon.org

E-Bazaar a VC's perspective- Part 1

Dharmesh Thakker is a Senior Associate with Advanced Technology Ventures based in silicon valley. Dharmesh is intersted in meeting high quality people and professinals and believes that TiE is one of the best platforms that serves this purpose. According to Dharmesh, TiE not only gives Venture Capitalists like him a good opportunity to meet aspiring entrepreneurs but also like minded VCs in the silicon valley with whom he can partner with in funding, growing and mentoring new companies.

Advanced Technology Ventures, according to Dharmesh, can help fund and grow companies that are early or mid stage. Early stage companies mostly have work in developing the technolgy and executing the project. The technical skills and execution ability of the whole team plays a key role in being VC friendly and attracting needed money. Mid size companies are those where the company has already graduated from the technological innovation and is trying to scale up the technology to cater to different and more users. An invincible business development strategy, enviable market positioning and best sales force are very important to pitch the company's growing financial needs, Dharmesh says. Advanced Technology Ventures is among numerous Venture Capital firms participating in the much sought after E-Bazaar event on 16th May during TiECon 2008 at the Santa Clara Convention Center, Silicon Valley.

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