Indus Entrepreneurs plans to set up three regional chapters
TM Arun Kumar
MUMBAI, January 13: The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), a US-based non-profit association of entrepreneurs with interest in the Indus (Indian sub-continent) region, is setting up three regional chapters in the country. According to TiE president Kanwal S Rekhi the organisation is at present in the process of finding and convincing successful domestic entrepreneurs to start the proposed regional chapters."We want to bring the TiE concept to India as there has been a lot of requests from from the people here," said Rekhi. The TiE concept has received an encouraging response from both the existing as well as prospective entrepreneurs, he added. TiE, which was formed by a group of US-based entrepreneurs with interest in the sub-continent five years ago, has been responsible for producing 50 successful start-up companies in the US. Explaining the TiE concept, Rekhi said, "The charter members of TiE, who are successful entrepreneurs themselves, become a sort of proxy fathers to advise the `young want-to-be'
entrepreneurs on how to go about the process of setting up a company. They can also help by being on the boards of such start-ups, putting in their own money as seed capital and by convincing venture capitalists to invest in those start-ups." This is a time tested and a successful way to move forward in the industry, Rekhi said. "There are thousands of people wanting to start their own ventures, but are not able to do because of lack of support and guidance. TiE hopes to solve this problem," he added. According to Rekhi, the emergence of organisations like TiE will also help solve the problem of venture capital. "India does not have a venture capital tradition. But, very few countries apart from the US have it. So you really need organisations like TiE," he pointed out. "Also, venture capital funds will start coming into the country once organisations like the TiE are here. We have a very high profile in the US and some of our chartered members are venture capitalists themselves," he said. TiE will
also be signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom), the apex body of the domestic software industry. As per the agreement, the two organisations will support each other by working together on a number of things. In addition, Nasscom will also try and convince the promoters of its member companies to become charter members of the TiE chapters in the country.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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