The Genesis of TiE

The Founding of TiE

September 7, 2023

TiE was founded in Silicon Valley in December 1992 by Ambrish (AJ) Patel (Founder) and eight cofounders, Suhas Patil, Kanwal Rekhi, Roy Prasad, Bipin Shah, Kailash Joshi, Raidu (Ray) Vrudhula, Narpat Bhandari and Sam Sathya. AJ was a visionary leader passionate about creating an organization dedicated to networking and fostering entrepreneurship via mentoring. The cofounders joined AJ to turn TiE into a movement, and all contributed to the creation of TiE. AJ started TiE under his name as a DBA and provided resources and facilities of his company for over a year to organize monthly networking events and get more entrepreneurs and executives involved. These early efforts
demonstrated receptivity and validated the need for an organization like TiE.

In late 1993, the group chose Suhas Patil to lead TiE as its first official President with a charter to evolve TiE into a formal organization. TiE was incorporated in 1994 and became a legal entity with Suhas and Kanwal as Board members. Among many ideas Suhas initiated, two were especially impactful. Suhas introduced the concept of Charter Members who were successful entrepreneurs willing to mentor aspiring entrepreneurs and financially help underwrite the operating expenses of TiE. Twenty veteran entrepreneurs signed up as Charter Members at the time of incorporation. Suhas also proposed a 2-day seminar and workshop for entrepreneurs, and personally guaranteed any budgetary shortfall that TiE might incur from such an event. This event, held in March of 1994, was a resounding success and put TiE on the map by creating awareness for TiE at leading Silicon Valley VC firms, academia, law firms, accounting firms, and other service providers in the entrepreneuraial ecosystem. Later renamed TiECon, this annual conference became the flagship event of TiE.

Kanwal Rekhi became TiE President following Suhas, and under his leadership, TiE massively expanded its footprint. Kanwal, AJ, and Suhas worked together to open TiE Chapters in other locations in the US and India. Kanwal was a one-man army who led the effort to bring TiE to India. TiE Boston, TiE Southern California, TiE New York and TiE Seattle, as well as TiE Delhi, TiE Mumbai and TiE Bangalore were formed during 1998-2000. Initially, TiE-Silicon Valley was the parent TiE entity with the other chapters considered sub-chapters. In 2002, following a suggestion by Prof. CK Prahalad, who was a Charter Member of TiE by then,TiE Global was formed as a single umbrella organization for all TiE chapters. TiE Silicon Valley agreed to transfer all the IP, including logo and became a chapter of TiE Global like all other chapters.

The success of TiE was the result of many who helped shape a vision for TiE and contributed in many ways in the early days. Kanwal Rekhi and Roy Prasad sat at the dining table at Suhas Patil’s home to draw up a document outlining a philosophical foundation for TiE, the key points of which were that wealth creation through informed entrepreneurship was a worthy cause, and TiE must be an open, transparent and inclusive organization with no political, religious or other agendas. Roy came up with The Indus Entrepreneurs as the name for the organization, helped AJ with the initial monthly networking meetings, and managed TiE’s finances. Bipin took responsibility for organizing special events and was instrumental in ensuring the success of the first TiECon. Kailash Joshi, Narpat Bhandari, and Sam Satya contributed to various discussions on the formation of TiE and helped promote TiE. Rayudu Vrudhula came up with the acronym “TiE”. Several Charter Members came forward to take up responsibilities to run different activities of TiE, with noteworthy contributions coming from Paul Gupta, Bakul Joshi, Nitin Mehta, Chirag Karia, Prabhu Goel, Satish Gupta, Parveen Gupta, Mohan Trikha, Nagesh Mhatre, Kris Karla, Prithipal Singh and Ramesh Yadava. Several spouses, most notably Jayashree Patil, Hem Joshi, and Neera Gupta, also supported TiE in the early days, with Jayashree as the first executive director of the TiE office.