TiE has been facilitating the growth of entrepreneur skills amongst its
members. Its recent awards ceremony at Kolkata saw the participation of over 200
delegates, including entrepreneurs, budding entrepreneurs, organizations,
students, angel investors, academic thought leaders, senior government
representatives, etc
The Kolkata chapter of The Indus Entrepreneur (TiE), a global not-for-profit
organization focused on promoting entrepreneurship, recently organized its
annual entrepreneurial summit in Kolkata, followed by an awards ceremony
focusing on enterprising growth in the region.
Nearly 200 delegates and speakers from across the country, including
entrepreneurs, budding entrepreneurs, organizations, students, angel investors,
academic thought leaders and senior government representatives converged to
promote and celebrate entrepreneurship during TieGer 2009, the annual
entrepreneur summit with its theme tagged as 'Entrepreneurship Is The Future'.
"We are facilitating the growth of entrepreneur skills and fostering its
development through TiE. Primarily for the Kolkata chapter, we are strongly
focusing on areas across West Bengal and Sikkim. Also, we are looking forward to
have more solidarity across the eastern region," said Vasant Subramanyan,
President, TiE, Kolkata chapter.
(L-R) Hemir Doshi, VP, IDG Ventures; Pradeep Gupta, Chairman, CyberMedia India; R Ramraj, Sr Advisor, Sequoia Capital and Sam Chapin, Ex Director, Airawat during the event |
Seeding the Seeders
The organization has facilitated Seeders, a newly formed seed fund, set-up
by some of the members to provide seed capital to promising young entrepreneurs
in the information and communication technology domain. "We have a pressing need
to provide seed funding for entrepreneurs in the region and we are supporting
initiatives which would facilitate start ups to get seed and angel funding,"
Subramanyan added.
The Seeders is the latest development in TiE. The division, headed by
Abhishek Rungta, founder of Indus Net Technologies is keen in his efforts in
organizing fund provision for the new entrants in the industry.
"We provide the initial funding for new entrepreneurs and for the time being,
we are limiting ourselves in the IT and technology domain only. We provide
incubation facility of Rs 2 crore at the maximum. But mostly, it is in the range
of Rs 2 lakh," Rungta said.
While arranging for the Seed fund, the organization facilitates with other
established capitalists and investors to pick up stakes in the new firm and
foster the development of the same.
Getting government and student buy-in
This time, at the TieGer event, the Sikkim state government also
participated with its plans for developing the region. Speaking on the sidelines
of the event, PD Rai, MP (Sikkim) said, "Developing entrepreneurship is not only
crucial for the development of business, but also essential for social
development. As unemployment continues to deter the economic progress of the
nation, self-employment provides a good answer to address the issue."
Besides the annual conference, TiE Kolkata also initiated a B-Plan
Competition through its knowledge partners National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN)
and E-cell of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Calcutta. It received 90
B-Plans from students, MBAs and early stage entrepreneurs for 2009. From this,
20 B-plans were short-listed and through an elaborate vetting process the list
was further shortened to four.
"TiE's Business Plan Competition is one of the biggest initiatives in the
state to scout for winning ideas and entrepreneurial talent. TiE Kolkata has
set-up an independent jury with members from education, social sector, policy
makers, industry and TiE Charter Members to evaluate the B-Plans," said Deepak
Daftari, Chairman-Business Plan Initiative, TiE Kolkata.
Nurturing Gen Next
This year, the business plans or concepts submitted by young students and
entrepreneurs included a wide range of business ventures starting from B-Plans
to provide services like bonsai and medicinal plants to high-end commercial
mobile telephone-based solutions B-Plans for rural health, alternative energy
and collaborative purchasing power B-Plans for wellness and healthcare services
B-Plans to offer web-based applications business plans to provide fish sausages,
herbal lipstick, lifestyle refreshment et al.
TiE has a 7-point criterion on the basis of which business plans are
evaluated and vetted for awards. TiEger 2009 B-Plan winners would get mentoring
and networking support to launch their business.
"We are extremely pleased with the support that we have received from
entrepreneurs and the Government of West Bengal and a program of this magnitude
can be organized only with the support of such sponsors," said B Hari,
Chairman-Major Events, TiE Kolkata.
The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) is focused on promoting entrepreneurship based
on 3As-awareness, advocacy and assistance. The objective is to help budding
entrepreneurs through mentoring, networking and education and create an
atmosphere for fostering the spirit of enterprise, especially among the young.
The strength of TiE's global network can be gauged from the fact that it
currently has a network spread across 53 chapters in 12 countries, with over
11,000 members and 2,500 charter members who are top entrepreneurs, venture
capitalists, lawyers and management professionals in their chosen field. The
parent organization, TiE Global, was founded in Silicon Valley (USA) in 1992.
Channel makes its presence felt
The IT channel industry is one teeming with ingenious entrepreneurs. So it
is not a surprise that they were equally present and participant in his event.
Speaking about developing entrepreneurial skills, PK Sinha, President-Patna
chapter, TiE said, "One has to remember that entrepreneurship is not a 9 to 5
job, and neither is it everybody's cup of tea. An entrepreneur needs to keep
scanning for opportunities and seizes it when the time is ripe and exploits it
thereby building up his business."
Besides a panel of eminent personalities, gracing the occasion was also
Pradeep Gupta, President, TiE, Delhi chapter and publisher of CyberMedia India's
various publications in the ICT space.
In his address to buzzing entrepreneurs looking for venture capitalists for
funds, he said, "Resorting to a VC is not always commendable. Since there are no
laid rules for entrepreneurship and no guide book is present to address the
queries, one has to decide on his own sources and funds. There are variations to
do things and keeping options open is always recommended."
This message hit home amongst the budding entrepreneurs at the event, several
of who were seen then discussing about their individual plans and how they would
like to amongst the most successful entrepreneurs of the future.
Avishek Rakshit
avishekr@cybermedia.co.in