‘TiE Global Summit to bring global ecosystem to Hyderabad’

Each year, TiE Hyderabad chapter impacts over 1,100 startups and more than 6400 students through its various programmes

Hyderabad: The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), founded in 1992 in Silicon Valley by a group of entrepreneurs, corporate executives, and senior professionals, has evolved into a go-to network for all things related to entrepreneurship. Each year, TiE Hyderabad chapter impacts over 1,100 startups and more than 6400 students through its various programmes covering education, mentoring, funding, networking and incubation related matters. TiE is hosting its Global Summit in Hyderabad from December 12 to 14. Suresh Raju, TiE Global Summit Co-Chair and TiE Hyderabad President, discusses the event with Telangana Today.

Why this event?

This is an annual flagship event and is held on a rotation basis. The last edition was in Dubai. Hyderabad will host this year and it will be held by Singapore the next year. This is the first event in Hyderabad post Covid. We chose to host this year in Hyderabad due to the vibrant startup ecosystem here. The Telangana Government, which has been supporting the startup segment by setting up T-Hub, WeHub, TSIC, RICH, T-Works and others, has aided Hyderabad being on our map. It is also equally focused on creating quality infrastructure. We want to bring the global ecosystem to Hyderabad now. We guess it will be a decade before the event returns to Hyderabad.

Gathering

About 600 members from various chapters have signed up. About 700 startups will also participate. More than 100 speakers will share their insights. The event will see 300 mentors sharing their experience. In all, more than 2,000 people are expected to attend the event at the Novotel HICC.

Key challenges for entrepreneurs

Many need mentoring, advise, guidance and market strategy. We have many programmes that allow startups to pitch their businesses to investors and mentors. We will also introduce various accelerators and their successes. About 100 investors from Silicon Valley, Boston, New York and other places will be present for the event.

Startup ecosystem in Hyderabad

The startup journey in the city has been phenomenal. There is a huge momentum and there are several successes. They are venturing to new segments and creating cutting edge technologies and solutions. I should say there has been a big change from four years ago. We are catching up and have capability to deliver significantly scaled businesses. Capital access and ecosystem are in place. Hyderabad is already home to several top MNCs and more are coming here. Also, there is a growing acceptance for failures, which is a must to nurture entrepreneurship. The failures are seen as experience. Investors too are not shying away from investing in ideas. This acceptance culture will be a norm soon.

Funding

Many ideas are positive about raising institutional funds. Of course, there is always risk in being an entrepreneur but the success rate increases with the commitment to go through the journey. Startups are now creating employment in significant numbers. There are an estimated 6,500 startups in Hyderabad and about 75,000 across the country. The hiring increases as they mature to growth phases and expansion. India is set to become the largest startup that will employ about 30 lakh people in five years.

Women entrepreneurs

Women are lagging in entrepreneurship and now account for about 15 per cent of all entrepreneurs. This is partly to do with what is considered a safe career mindset but that is changing quickly and many are looking at entrepreneurship. Some work is needed in this direction by all stakeholders. TiE will host a ‘global women pitching session’ during the summit. The winner will be entitled to $1,00,000 (about Rs 80 lakh) and an opportunity to interact with globally prominent investors.