The Indus Entrepreneurs or TiE is a not-for-profit global network of entrepreneurs and professionals founded in 1992 in Silicon Valley, California, USA by a group of businessmen and entrepreneurs of Indian Origin led by Dr. Suhas Patil. Though its name signifies the ethnic South Asian or Indus roots of the founders, TiE, as the founders claim, stands for Talent, Ideas and Enterprise. The next chapters, Boston and Los Angeles, were founded in 1997. The first chapters in India were Bangalore and Mumbai, which were founded in 1999. Currently, TiE has more than forty chapters in nine countries. TiE's has fostered the birth of many companies by providing a place where entrepreneurs can find resources like mentoring, financial support and employees. TiE is supported by two groups:
- charter members - accomplished businessmen - executives, founders of companies and venture capitalists.
- sponsors - venture firms, legal firms and venture financial services
TiE endeavours to cultivate and nurture the ecosystems of entrepreneurship and free-market economies everywhere, as it sees this to be the single most powerful instrument of prosperity.
Silicon Valley Chapter
TiE Silicon Valley is the flagship chapter for TiE. It is well known for hosting what is perhaps the largest gathering on entreprenurship at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Silicon Valley every year. Past speakers have included Jim Clark, Eric Schmidt, Carly Fiorina, Irwin Jacobs, Thomas Friedman and Vinod Khosla. TiE Silicon Valley has created a model that allows a birds of a feather style gathering on many topics ranging from semi-conductors to internet and new media. TiE Silicon Valley has been led by a president and a board of directors. Both are elected for a term of two years by the charter members. The TiE Silicon Valley presidents have included Suhas Patil (founder Cirrus Logic), Kanwal Rekhi (founder Excelan), Kailash Joshi (senior exec IBM), Sridhar Iyenger (Partner, KPMG) and is currently led by Raj Jaswa (founder Selectica and Opti).
Boston Chapter
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TiE Boston Chapter is the second largest chapter after Silicon Valley. TiE-Boston chapter's vision aligns with TiE Global and fosters entrepreneurship from grass roots level. It is well know for its Flagship program TiE Young Entrepreneurs. This program is geared towards high school students to develop entrepreneurial and leadership skills. At the end of the educational program, students participate in a business plan competition to win a $10k cash prize. The plans are evaluated career investors and VC's Similar to Silicon Valley TiE-Boston also host several events in different vertical groups as well as one flag ship conference in collaboration with the 9 other East coast chapters called TiECON East. Past Speakers have included Ram Shriram, Clayton Christensen, Dr. Edward Benz, Mitt Romney and Ed Zander TiE Boston is led by a president and a board of directors. Both elected for a term of two years by the Charter Members of Boston chapter. Past presidents include Desh Deshpande (founder Sycamore Networks), Samir Desai (founder System Resources corporation), Ashok Kalelkar (Venture Capitalist), Gautham Prakash (founder Mansoon Capital), and Vint Nijhawan (founder Kinetic Computer Corporation).
