Jakkampudi Adiseshaiah Chowdary, president of The Indus Entrepreneurs of the Hyderabad Chapter has been associated with information technology for over two decades now.
TiE-ISB Connect 2008 (Nov 5-7) is a joint initiative of the Hyderabad chapter of TiE and the Wadhwani Centre for Entrepreneurship Development of the Hyderabad-based Indian School of Business. The first event was held in 2005.
The theme of this year's event is 'The next 800 million opportunity', the story of the 'road not taken'.
Chowdary who is the managing director of NVIDIA Graphics Private Limited, Hyderabad, talks to contributing managing editor Shobha Warrier about what TiE-ISB 2008 is all about.
What role does TiE play in TiE-ISB Connect 2008?
TiE always has a unique role across the world that is to unite entrepreneurs for a common cause. What is new now is the focus of the event; it is to bring out the entrepreneur in an aam aadmi.
The goal of the event is to create wealth and value for India by promoting entrepreneurship. With global economy in turmoil, how much enthusiasm do you expect from the entrepreneurs?
Whenever markets are down, people have taken up entrepreneurship. It leaves us with too few choices. So I do not foresee any slowdown in entrepreneurship development in India.
The spirit of entrepreneurship is to create opportunities during these moments as it helps you to pause, rethink and expand your vision to tap new opportunities and fresh ideas.
With the nationalisation of many top US banks, do you feel there will be a fall in the number of new entrepreneurs?
We may see a slowdown. But there is willingness from every quarter to promote and support ideas that lead to profitability both economically and socially.
Do you expect adequate number of VCs to back projects this year?
TiE-ISB Connect has been able to continuously attract leading venture capitalists every year. The number has been growing. VCs continue to seek 'bright ideas' and 'cool start-ups' to invest.
We continue to enhance our business plan selection process and made it more stringent in such way that only serious enough plans meet the pre-qualification stage to match the expectation of VC's.
How successful was the last Connect?
We had an overwhelming response in 2007. The event attracted over 600 delegates, 50 VCs and some of the highly successful business leaders representing some of the best business houses in the country including a leading economist and an academician.
Each year gives us immense satisfaction and new goals to conquer. We continue to play a significant role in the creation of an ecosystem that fosters entrepreneurship.
How many business plans were mooted in 2007? How many got the nod?
Last year's event attracted close to 400 entries, out of which 36 ideas were short listed for Start Connect - for early stage firms and Growth Connect - for growth stage firms. Over 30 VCs were present for the business plan showcase.
Can you name some of the successes of the event?
We are happy to announce that over the last few years, the event attracted many entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, business leaders and students.
Several rounds of mentoring sessions were also held by the TiE-ISB team, helping aspiring entrepreneurs to refine their strategies and business approaches.
Among the other success stories, few of the companies were successful in obtaining angel investments, first round and second round funding. Some of them got into strategic partnerships for improving market operations; many of them received business leads and support in refining business strategy.
Among the most recent notable successes is Pressmart Media, which presented its business idea in TiE-ISB Connect 2007 and were able to raise $6 million from two of the leading VCs DFJ Ventures and NEA IndoUS Ventures.
What are your expectations for 2008?
In the last three years, the TiE-ISB Connect attracted over 1000 participants. We are expecting the number of aspiring entrepreneurs, management teams of early-stage to growth-stage ventures from sunrise sectors, and business development service providers increase substantially this year.
The VC participation has also been very encouraging, and we hope the participation of venture capitalists and investors also to grow in number this year, which are actively intensifying India-centric investments through the entire entrepreneurial lifecycle - angel investment, early and growth stages.
Do you think the theme The Next 800 million Opportunity will help many people to come out with some out of the box ideas?
Yes, as our objective is to promote and foster entrepreneurship by helping aspirants to not only come up with ideas but also help them to refine their business ideas and provide mentorship.
We hope TiE-ISB Connect 2008 will spring few surprises that will excite the entrepreneurship community.
At TiE-ISB Connect, our focus is to nurture and guide the next generation of business leaders. TiE-ISB Connect aims to be the hub of all innovative entrepreneurial activity. The objective is to create wealth and value for India by promoting entrepreneurship and helping entrepreneurs to build successful businesses.
