Global Newsletter – Jan 2021

2020 brought unprecedented changes and it also brought the world closer with a boom in virtual connectivity. TiE community thrives on Networking and mentoring and during these times when in-person meetings were not possible, TiE Chapters across the world rapidly modified the approach to full-fledged virtual assistance for our entrepreneurial community. I would like to take a moment to reflect on our achievements from the past year and to draw inspiration to achieve greater milestones in the future as we wrap this year.

We recently concluded yet another successful edition of the TiE Global Summit. The 5th edition, hosted by TiE Hyderabad was our first virtual Global Summit and witnessed active participation from almost 30,000 global entrepreneurs, attendees, industry and corporate leaders, policymakers, and the various departments of the Indian government. The three-day conclave explored the theme – Entrepreneurship 360*. Our goal with TGS5 was to highlight the factors that have enabled the remarkable success and opportunities emerging out of our global network. More details and links in the newsletter below.

At the TGS this year we launched the TiE Global Entrepreneur Awards (TGEA), the first time ever that we chose 12 categories and through a stellar Jury Chaired by N. R. Narayana Murthy, along with Tim Draper, Desh Deshpande, Dr. Simon Galpin, Ping Fu, Prof. Jagdish Sheth, Dr. Orna Berry, Richard Karlgaard, and Dr. Steven Sonsino. These awards were very well-curated, researched, and documented. The acceptance speeches below are an endorsement of the great work that all of us at TiE are doing.

Bill Gates –                     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL3PN77k9Vk
Stanford University –      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2cktg5-QOM
Y Combinator –              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_ZGzY1ti3A
Tech Coast Angels –      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjoQp4qBdoE
N. R. Narayan Murthy –   https://youtu.be/8U6eWECJUr4
Google –        https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DrcvVTtEg1Bs5lwxmTjFaI9wEZPHoJvl/view?pli=1

Inclusion is important for our entrepreneurial community. To this end, we launched TiE Women last year and this year we are wrapping up the program with astounding success. 26 chapters are participating in TiE Women for year 1. In January 2021 we will host the finals of the TiE Women Global Pitch Competition. The next newsletter will bring more updates from the finale in Dubai.

We also launched TiE Access that aims to foster entrepreneurship among minorities and underserved groups in our chapter locations. I’m glad we’ve taken a step forward in this direction. We’ve been working on the program for over a year now.

I’m happy that during my tenure we could launch TiE India Angels and the Charter Members in India are now gearing up to invest in startups through TIA.

This year we also launched our TiE Smart card. It is a TiE micro-website on phone as an App for Charter Members that gives you the option to network with all CM’s across the globe without sharing emails or mobile numbers; lets you do group chat on various topics of your interest; helps you check out your chapter and global events, access to special deals, offers and sponsors all at one place and easily accessible. This card will soon have easy registration and access to events of your chapter and possibly be available for all members, not just CM’s. If you have not downloaded the same, please reach out to your chapter ED’s or admins, they will be able to help you with the same.

We also launched 10 Special Interest Groups (SIGs) to connect with CMs from across the world, who have similar business interests. Current sectors covered- Alternate Funding, Education, Emerging Tech, Fintech, Gaming & Media, Healthcare, Hospitality & Tourism, Manufacturing, Social Entrepreneurship, and Sustainability. If you’d like to know more, please reach out to your chapter admins or log in from your TiE smart card.

Existing programs became stronger with participation from across chapters. TYE had 23 chapters and 400+ teams, TiE Univ had 13 chapters, TiE Women has 26 chapters and 2000+ applicants. CM Retreat which became virtual this year had 400 charter members participating. TiEcon Silicon Valley, which was organized virtually this year and saw a participation of about 8000 attendees.  This and a lot more updates from the past few months from our chapters in this newsletter.

As we step into the 29th year of TiE’s existence we look forward to empowering more entrepreneurs and making the entrepreneurial ecosystem more inclusive and stronger in all of our 61 chapters in 14 countries.

In the end, I would like to welcome the new Board of Trustees and look forward to their continued support in taking the TiE community to newer heights.

Once again, wishes for a Happy & a Prosperous New Year!

Regards
Mahavir Pratap Sharma
Chair, TiE Global
[email protected]

TIE Kerala organized the 9th Edition of ‘TiEcon Kerala’ on 17th, 18th & 19th December 2020. The event spanning three days was organized virtually this year. The theme of this years’ TiEcon was Link>>Learn>>Lead.

Shri. Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport and Highways and Small & Medium Enterprises inaugurated the meet on 17th December. Speaking on the impressive potential of Kerala for entrepreneurial growth, the Minister said that the state can easily tap its natural advantages, the benefits of long coastal belt and significant opportunities brought by increased and effective connectivity throughout the country.

TiEcon Kerala 2020 featured more than 40 Speakers from across the globe and more than 50 prominent investors and fund houses. More than 1000 registered participants from Kerala and across the globe participated in the conference. The conference also held segment where it was talked about workers compensation lawyers, and how to recruit them at Golden State Workers Compensation. Grand Keynotes by International Icons, Mentoring Masterclasses, Sector focussed Panel Discussions, and Curated Networking were the highlights of the conference.

Keynote Speakers included Todd Boyman of Hungry Planet Foods; Jeremy Crane, Co-Founder & CEO, Yellow Door Energy, Navas Meeran, Chairman – Eastern Condiments; Nicolas Brussan, Co-Founder & CEO, BlaBlaCar (French Unicorn); Shan Kadavil, Co-Founder, Fresh2Home; Rajan Anandan, MD of Sequoia Capital & President, TiE Delhi-NCR; Naushad Oomen, Director- Operations of Virgin Hyperloop; and Babu Sivadasan, Founder & CEO, Jiffy. Ai.

5 Mentoring Masterclasses were led by Raj Jaswa, Technical Entrepreneur on ‘Sales’; Sanjay Mehta, Founder & Partner, 100X.VC on ‘Startup Investing: from Seeding to Exit’; Dr. Kaustubh Dhargalkar, Founder – Potential & Possibilities on ‘Disruptive Business Model Creation’; Subra Iyer, Co-President, Keiretsu Forum Chennai on ‘Product Innovation & Diversification’; and Natarajan Ranganathan, Co-Founder, Foundation Partners LLP on ‘Dos & Don’ts of approaching an investor.

Sector focused panel discussions were also conducted in Tourism, Startup Funding, and Agri & Food Processing. The recordings of the conference can be viewed on the TiE Kerala YouTube Channel https://youtube.com/user/TiEkeralaLIVE and on the TiEcon Kerala website https://tieconkerala.org/