TiE in Silicon Valley rolls out Billion Dollar Babies to help Indian startups

BENGALURU: The Silicon Valley chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) is launching a first-of-its-kind initiative, called Billion Dollar Babies, to mentor Indian startups that have the potential to hit a billion dollars in valuation, and showcase them to US investors.
The initiative is spearheaded by TiE’s Silicon Valley members and serial entrepreneurs B V Jagadeesh and Raju Reddy, who is also founder of Sierra Atlantic, and its Silicon Valley president Venkatesh Shukla.
“We will identify 6-8 Indian startups and take them to the Valley where we would help them set up an office, and hand hold them in their legal, sales and marketing efforts,” said Jagadeesh.
Jagadeesh, who grew up in Bangalore and then moved to the US, is also the managing partner of Kaaj Ventures and his investments in the US include Ocarina Networks (that was acquired by Dell), Ankeena Networks (acquired by Juniper), Denali Systems, ScaleArc, Nutanix, Fonemine and Whodini. He has invested in three Bangalore-based startups — Flutura, Rakya Technologies and Triumph Software.
Jagadeesh said the screening process for Indian startups would be based on the size of the market that they were addressing and success proof points in India. “We believe that given the size and nature of the Indian market, startups that validate their idea and technology here would be good enough for the world market. Also, they should be addressing multi-billion dollar market opportunities,” he said.
He said the selection process had started, with three startups being asked to present their ideas to some investors in the Valley. He said it was premature to name the startups.
TiE was founded in 1992 in Silicon Valley by a group of successful entrepreneurs, corporate executives, and senior professionals with roots in the Indus region. There are currently 13,000 members, including over 2,500 charter members in 61 chapters across 18 countries. “We have some 300 charter members in the US who are willing to give time to build the next generation of enterprise. We will also leverage this network to raise funding for the startups,” Jagadeesh said.