By Asma Chandani
Tesla, GE, Cisco and IBM were among the corporate heavyweights in Silicon Valley this past weekend, at a large convention of entrepreneurs and venture capitalists hosted by The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE).
Spanning over three days, nearly every successful entrepreneur or venture capitalist of Indian-origin seemed to be in attendance, to give back and share their success stories and words of wisdom with an enthused crowd. Keynote speakers included Jack Welch, erstwhile CEO of General Electric, Vinod Khosla of Khosla Ventures and U.S. Attorney (S.D.N.Y.) Preet Bharara.
Partners from venture capital firms Inventus Capital, Blume Ventures, March Capital and Fenox Ventures advised start ups on everything from identifying that "big idea" to soliciting smart capital for each entrepreneur's unique financing needs. Hot Indian tech startups Flipkart and Zomato also sent their chief executives to participate in the presentations. Angel investor consortium Indian Angel Network and Intel Capital were also there to scope out the networking opportunities.
Indian trade group FICCI was present in full force, accompanied by a delegation of entrepreneurs from India. Young startup Kisan Network (Hindi for 'Farmer Network') pitched mobile solutions for inefficiencies in Indian agribusiness. Medical device company VisionCare Ophthalmic Technologies reveled in sharing the news of its recent FDA approval for an implanted miniature telescope that cures age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the single leading cause of vision loss in adults over 60.
Industry trends covered included Internet of Things, Cloud Security, Data Economy, Online Education, Entrepreneurship, Tech in Oil & Gas, Social Entrepreneurship and Make in India. Social media wired up the conference in a powerful way, as conference attendees used event networking app Bizaboo to send real time messages, tweet, and connect on LinkedIn with the swipe of a thumb.
#TIEcon ended on a high note, with powerful keynotes led by tech thought leader Vivek Wadhwa, who portended a Star Trek-like, Civilization 3.0, enhanced by quantum teleportation.
Keynote speaker and artist Raghava KK embodied an 'Indian' Steve Jobs as he enticed the audience with his promise of delivering the world's first visual Internet in six months time, a project backed by venture firm Kleiner Perkins and branded with the reverse hashtag 'must#'.
Vivek Ranadivé, the final keynote speaker, shared his rags to riches journey from 'someone with no money and owing all he had to the United States and the state of California' to being present owner of the Sacramento Kings NBA basketball team, chasing the idea of a software bus. Ranadivé reminded an energetic crowd brimming with entrepreneurial spirit that each of us had, in the palm of our hands, more computer processing power in our individual smartphones than was available to the U.S. government when it first sent a man to the moon.
(The author is a US and India trained corporate attorney who advises investors, companies and asset managers on cross-border capital raising and investment. Asma Chandani represents global specialist law firm Dechert LLP in India. Twitter @asmachandani.)
Tesla, GE, Cisco and IBM were among the corporate heavyweights in Silicon Valley this past weekend, at a large convention of entrepreneurs and venture capitalists hosted by The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE).
Spanning over three days, nearly every successful entrepreneur or venture capitalist of Indian-origin seemed to be in attendance, to give back and share their success stories and words of wisdom with an enthused crowd. Keynote speakers included Jack Welch, erstwhile CEO of General Electric, Vinod Khosla of Khosla Ventures and U.S. Attorney (S.D.N.Y.) Preet Bharara.
Partners from venture capital firms Inventus Capital, Blume Ventures, March Capital and Fenox Ventures advised start ups on everything from identifying that "big idea" to soliciting smart capital for each entrepreneur's unique financing needs. Hot Indian tech startups Flipkart and Zomato also sent their chief executives to participate in the presentations. Angel investor consortium Indian Angel Network and Intel Capital were also there to scope out the networking opportunities.
Indian trade group FICCI was present in full force, accompanied by a delegation of entrepreneurs from India. Young startup Kisan Network (Hindi for 'Farmer Network') pitched mobile solutions for inefficiencies in Indian agribusiness. Medical device company VisionCare Ophthalmic Technologies reveled in sharing the news of its recent FDA approval for an implanted miniature telescope that cures age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the single leading cause of vision loss in adults over 60.
Industry trends covered included Internet of Things, Cloud Security, Data Economy, Online Education, Entrepreneurship, Tech in Oil & Gas, Social Entrepreneurship and Make in India. Social media wired up the conference in a powerful way, as conference attendees used event networking app Bizaboo to send real time messages, tweet, and connect on LinkedIn with the swipe of a thumb.
#TIEcon ended on a high note, with powerful keynotes led by tech thought leader Vivek Wadhwa, who portended a Star Trek-like, Civilization 3.0, enhanced by quantum teleportation.
Keynote speaker and artist Raghava KK embodied an 'Indian' Steve Jobs as he enticed the audience with his promise of delivering the world's first visual Internet in six months time, a project backed by venture firm Kleiner Perkins and branded with the reverse hashtag 'must#'.
Vivek Ranadivé, the final keynote speaker, shared his rags to riches journey from 'someone with no money and owing all he had to the United States and the state of California' to being present owner of the Sacramento Kings NBA basketball team, chasing the idea of a software bus. Ranadivé reminded an energetic crowd brimming with entrepreneurial spirit that each of us had, in the palm of our hands, more computer processing power in our individual smartphones than was available to the U.S. government when it first sent a man to the moon.
(The author is a US and India trained corporate attorney who advises investors, companies and asset managers on cross-border capital raising and investment. Asma Chandani represents global specialist law firm Dechert LLP in India. Twitter @asmachandani.)
