COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

TIE Conference Big Hit With 20-Plus Crowd

A P Kamath in San Jose

Many people believe that TIE -- The IndUS Entrepreneurs -- is more of an organization that helps new ventures find investors. That is not incorrect, says Kanwal Rekhi, the TIE president. The organization is also about mentoring, he adds. TIE leaders including Rekhi are among some of the best talents in Silicon Valley and have been profiled in magazines such as BusinessWeek and Forbes.

"Everyone in America knows the word guru," Rekhi said in his welcome speech at the two-day TIE annual conference here at the weekend. "But there is also the word, chela."

Most TIE leaders have spent more than two decades in America but they have not lost the Indian traditions, Rekhi says from time to time.

"We are passing the knowledge in the guru-chela tradition," Rekhi, who two years ago donated $ 2 million to help his alma mater, IIT Mumbai, told the gathering.

At TIE, the former chelas turned gurus offer mentoring services to young entrepreneurs, he said.

"TIE is more about wealth creation and less about investment," he said. "It is more of a mentoring phenomenon based in the Silicon Valley ethos -- innovation."

The Entrepreneurship in the Internet Age conference was sold out, with at least 200 out of the 900 attendees, coming from other American states. The conference room looked more like the venue for a college function.

Nearly half the attendees were below 30; a significant number of them were in their 20s. A substantial number of them are graduate students who coughed up $ 165 ($ 295 for TIE members and $ 345 for nonmembers) -- to listen to some of the biggest names in the Internet. The speakers included Tim Koogle, CEO of Yahoo and Halsey Minor, CEO of Cnet.

"Listening to Koogle and Minor is not a major concern to many of us, at least not for me," said wannabe entrepreneur Duston Almeida, one of the dozen New York attendees. "Like most other young participants here, I want to network, find out if my theories could become a reality."

"Over the years, TIE has established itself as the premier organization involved in transforming budding entrepreneurs into industry leaders," Rekhi told Rediff On The NeT. "The TIEcon '99 theme reflects the advent of the Internet as a major opportunity for entrepreneurs in technology as well as non-technology sectors."

The conference was sponsored by -- among others -- such blue-chip firms as Kleiner Perkins, Morgan Stanley, PriceWaterhouse Coopers, Ernst & Young, Venture Law Group and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.

In each of the past five years, TIE conferences were sold out. "But this year was the record," Rekhi said. "As early as two weeks ago, 600 people had registered. In the past, people used to wait till the last two days or so for registration. So with 600 people all set for the conference, and constant registration requests, we asked for a bigger venue, enough to seat 900 people."

"Even then we had to turn back over 300," he said. "Aren't we doing well?"

Tell us what you think of this report