Re-Imagine Success At This Year’s Tiecon

In a proposal to enhance the entrepreneurial spirit of Start-up India, The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) is hosting its flagship mega conclave at Taj Palace in Delhi on December 15 and 16, 2017. The theme of the conclave is “Re-Imagining Success”, TiE will give a platform for entrepreneurs to connect with prospective mentors, investors and collaborators. More than 150 speakers will connect in about 50 different sessions, at the two-day conference, along with exciting start-up pitches, deal flow sessions, mentor and networking events.

The speakers at TiEcon Delhi-NCR 2017 comprise a union of achievers from the corporate and start-up ecosystem. The Civil Aviation Ministry revealed draft norms for the operation of Unmanned Aerial Systems or drones for civilian purposes earlier this year.

Shri Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Civil Aviation, GOI, will deliver the keynote address, envisaging his proposal for “Digital-Sky” for drones that is set to emerge as a game changer for start-ups in India.

Also, Shri Ashok Dalwai, Additional Secretary, Union Agriculture Ministry, a proponent of science-based agriculture policy, will talk about the need for policies that promote climate-smart agriculture and technology interventions that can double farmers’ incomes.

Shri Ramesh Abhishek, Hon. Secy., Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, will focus on topics related to technology interventions in government practices, challenges in the Indian start-up and SME ecosystems, etc.

The reach of attendees is just not restricted to Delhi-NCR. Governments of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Gujarat will also contribute along with their start-up delegates.

The Ministry of Agriculture will also be a part of the two-day event. They will also introduce a Grand Challenge for Agritech start-ups at TiEcon 2017. Speaking about TiEcon, Geetika Dayal, Executive Director, TiE Delhi-NCR, said, “This year’s TiEcon offers immense opportunities to entrepreneurs to network with some of the finest brains in the country for investments and collaboration. It is also more inclusive in terms of sectors, gender, geography and demographics.”

The event will host leaders such as Rajan Anandan, VP Southeast Asia and India for Google. As an angel investor, Mr Anandan has invested in 10 start-ups in the last one year alone. Other prominent speakers at the event include Sonam Wangchuk, the Founding Director of SECMOL, who inspired actor Aamir Khan’s role in 3 Idiots; Sunil Bharti Mittal, Founder & Chairman, Bharti Enterprises, Rahul Sharma, Co-founder, Micromax, Neeraj Bharadwaj, MD, Carlyle India, and Geeta Goel, VP Mission Investments, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation.

Michael & Susan Dell Foundation has set up an incubator in India and made several investments in domestic start-ups such as Shiksha Finance, Kinara Capital, NEST and Kings Learning in the last few months.

Other speakers include Talvin Singh, Percussionist, Composer & Producer, Utopia Sound Studio, Jaspreet Bindra of Mahindra and Mahindra, and Chetan Bhargava from Wiley India among many others.

To examine the state of the burgeoning FinTech sector in India, and to trace its growth trajectory and future trends, specially curated sessions around FinTech will be conducted on Day-2 of the conference.

There will be fireside chats, TiE Talks on Artificial Intelligence and digital transformation, as well as discussions about Big Data. The sessions will range from entrepreneurship under 30 to gender diversity with Balanced Workplaces to conference on casual sexism.

Among the gender diversity issues, Dr Valli Kumari Vatsavayi, CEO, AP Innovation Society, AP Govt., and Dr Renu Swarup, MD, BIRAC, will conduct a discussion on empowerment of women in tune with tech; Kanika Tekriwal, CEO & Founder of JetSetGo and Kalpana Jain, Partner, Deloitte, will talk about balanced workforce being the key to productivity.

There will also be lunch talks on art with Neha Kirpal, Founder Director, India Art Fair, on entertainment with Shubhra Gupta, film critic, Indian Express, on travel with Shoba Mohan, Founder Partner, RARE India, and on health & nutrition with Dr Shikha Sharma, Founder & MD, NutriHealth, among many other interesting sessions.

The TiE Institute Reinvest Festival, Start-up Revolution at the State Level and Clearing the Air – a dedicated session to finding entrepreneurial opportunities to tackle pollution in Delhi - come under the gamut of discussions at TiEcon. These are apart from the usual workshops on branding, marketing and finance.

TiEcon Delhi-NCR will also highlight investors, entrepreneurs and accelerators through its dedicated programmes such as the TiECONIC Pitches, which will provide potential entrepreneurs with a platform to present their business plans with three major verticals: Angel & Seed, VCs and Incubators & Accelerators.

In partnership with Carzonrent for ‘Mentoring in Motion’, a programme will allow young entrepreneurs to get mentored on the move by picking up a Charter Member and accompanying them to TiEcon Delhi-NCR in a pre-booked cab, assuring a dedicated face time with senior industry leaders.

At TiEcon this year, start-ups will also get a chance to participate in a curated investor-entrepreneur meet with private equity firm SAIF Partners. Entrepreneurs shall be given 10 minutes in a dedicated meeting during ‘SAIF Hours’ to pitch. Deepak Gaur, Partner at SAIF Partners, is also one of the speakers at the conference. The firm raised a $350 million India-specific fund earlier this year.

Topics such as social entrepreneurship, how to build a mentor network, scaling the venture, what is the right time to exit, stories of survival of entrepreneurs, logistics and last mile will be covered by start-up heavyweights such as Deep Kalra, Founder and Group CEO of MakeMyTrip, Ankit Mehrotra, Co-Founder of Dineout, Dinesh Agarwal, Founder and CEO of IndiaMart, Dhruv Shringi, Co-founder and CEO of Yatra, Digbijoy Shukla, Start-up Ecosystem Team Lead for Amazon Web Services, Mohit Tandon of Delhivery, Nitin Saluja of Chaayos, Upasana Taku of Mobikwik among many other participants from companies such as Qualcomm Ventures, Freight Tiger, Little Black Book, Lumis Partners, SafeExpress and Oxigen Services.