Here are some upcoming events that might be of interest to Sydney entrepreneurs and members of the TiE Mentoring Group.
20/11/07: A bit short notice, I'm afraid, but check out the pitching contest run by Anthill magazine here: http://www.anthillonline.com/event_detail.php?id=13. Anthilll is really the only dedicated local publication for entrepreneurs and you may have picked up a sample back issue at TiECON last week.
6/12/07: Many of you may already have received this event notice from Slattery IT (Rachel Slattery runs some great events and if you are in IT, her newsletter might be useful). See:
http://slattery.slatteryit.com.au/rp/118/process.clsp?EmailId=50259&Token=12D8D3785E69F92889A76
VC Connect is generally well-attended by the local VCs so it is an opportunity to pitch (or at least practice pitching!). You will notice Bill Bartee on the panel (who is a TiE Charter Member and was in our Sydney event in October). Also attending is Alison Deans, who used to be the MD of eBay in Australia. Along with Daniel Petre (ex-Microsoft) she invests in smaller startups. Mike Zimmerman (of TVP) is also an old friend of TiE. Do mention you are a TiE member when you introduce yourself. You will have to be actively selling (US style) to get the most out of this event - at least a couple of VC appointments post event is a good result.
11-13/12/07: For those of you interested in the Indian market, the TiE New Delhi Summit (11-13 Dec) might be worthwhile. As you know, New Delhi is very active in BPO, Call Centres and a couple of the mobile operators are based there, so for some of you it may be particularly useful to make contacts quickly. I know Hasnain Zaheer from TiE Sydney is attending, so you could chat with him about it as well. See: http://www.tiesummit.org/agenda.htm.
For those who have not been able to contact the US VC (and potential TiE mentor) I referred you to, the onus is on you to persist and get the phone call. VCs are notoriously bad at call backs, so don't be shy!
Monday, November 19, 2007
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
TiE Sydney Conference Gets Entrepreneurs Going!
Nearly a hundred keen Aussie entrepreneurs, wannabes and overseas visitors gathered at the Swissotel in downtown Sydney on 13 Nov 2007 to participate in TiECON 2007. An annual gathering organised by TiE Sydney (www.sydney.tie.org) this is the local version of the well-known TiECON in Silicon Valley - TiE is the world's largest non-for-profit entrepreneur support network (www.tie.org).
TiE’s mission is to foster entrepreneurship globally through mentoring, networking, and education. I was particularly attracted to the global nature of TiE - with 12,000 members in 49 chapters across 11 countries. Let me declare my interest - as Director of Mentoring of the Sydney Chapter, this is one organisation I have committed some time and energy to this year.
The theme of TiECON 2007 in Sydney was Global Connections with a focus on connecting to the USA and to India, so of interest to Australians targeting US markets as well as those exploring supply-side linkages with Indian companies.
Jackie Taranto, MD of Hannover Fairs (who run CeBIT) moderated the panel exploring US connections for Australian entrepreneurs.
Kanwal Rekhi, a serial entrepreneur and now Venture Capitalist from Silicon Valley was a keynote speaker who delivered insights into what's hot and what's not but more interestingly the strong linkages US startups as well as VCs have forged with India. If your business plan does not show how you are leveraging Indian talent you have a tough sell to investors, he implied.
Bill Bartee, our local VC from Southern Cross Venture Partners (though with a US heritage and Californian accent to assist!) had practical advice on testing your 'great idea' (ask prospective clients if they really need it and how much they will pay for it) and using TiE connections to open doors in the tough markets of the USA. With $170m to invest, Bill is looking for Australian companies with global potential that they can take into the USA.
I moderated a panel discussing Indian connections and was happily surprised to find that Mike Giles, CEO of WealthPoint had successfully marketed an Australian-developed hosted service for financial advisors to ING in India. WealthPoint is a 15-person company, so Australian SMEs can take heart that the Indian market is not just for the multinationals with deep pockets.
The not-so-surprising twist to emerge in this session was the opportunity for Australian companies to partner Indian global IT companies to sell to world markets. In fact, Sri Annaswamy of Swamy & Associates has a mandate from Indian globals to acquire Australian companies with world-class products or services.
The acquisition of FNS, an Australian retail banking product developer, by TCS the leading Indian IT company resulted in the sale of the Aussie platform not only to the State Bank of India (35,000 branches, 125 million clients!) but also to the Bank of China, another bank with enormous infrastructure.
The excitement of quizzing the panel experts (on everything from the cost of legal advice in the USA to finding the right partners in India) carried on into the evening networking session over drinks.
I found many interested in TiE Sydney's Mentoring Program that puts entrepreneurs together with those who've already 'been there, done that'. As a free service (mentors volunteer their time) it was not a hard sell! Membership of TiE Sydney is a prerequisite, but at $100 per year, that's affordable by most locals.
Overall, from lunch to cocktails, it was time well-spent and the feedback from participants was very positive, boding well for TiECON 2008.
[For others interested in TiE Mentoring, do email me at mentoring@sydney.tie.org.]
TiE’s mission is to foster entrepreneurship globally through mentoring, networking, and education. I was particularly attracted to the global nature of TiE - with 12,000 members in 49 chapters across 11 countries. Let me declare my interest - as Director of Mentoring of the Sydney Chapter, this is one organisation I have committed some time and energy to this year.
The theme of TiECON 2007 in Sydney was Global Connections with a focus on connecting to the USA and to India, so of interest to Australians targeting US markets as well as those exploring supply-side linkages with Indian companies.
Jackie Taranto, MD of Hannover Fairs (who run CeBIT) moderated the panel exploring US connections for Australian entrepreneurs.
Kanwal Rekhi, a serial entrepreneur and now Venture Capitalist from Silicon Valley was a keynote speaker who delivered insights into what's hot and what's not but more interestingly the strong linkages US startups as well as VCs have forged with India. If your business plan does not show how you are leveraging Indian talent you have a tough sell to investors, he implied.
Bill Bartee, our local VC from Southern Cross Venture Partners (though with a US heritage and Californian accent to assist!) had practical advice on testing your 'great idea' (ask prospective clients if they really need it and how much they will pay for it) and using TiE connections to open doors in the tough markets of the USA. With $170m to invest, Bill is looking for Australian companies with global potential that they can take into the USA.
I moderated a panel discussing Indian connections and was happily surprised to find that Mike Giles, CEO of WealthPoint had successfully marketed an Australian-developed hosted service for financial advisors to ING in India. WealthPoint is a 15-person company, so Australian SMEs can take heart that the Indian market is not just for the multinationals with deep pockets.
The not-so-surprising twist to emerge in this session was the opportunity for Australian companies to partner Indian global IT companies to sell to world markets. In fact, Sri Annaswamy of Swamy & Associates has a mandate from Indian globals to acquire Australian companies with world-class products or services.
The acquisition of FNS, an Australian retail banking product developer, by TCS the leading Indian IT company resulted in the sale of the Aussie platform not only to the State Bank of India (35,000 branches, 125 million clients!) but also to the Bank of China, another bank with enormous infrastructure.
The excitement of quizzing the panel experts (on everything from the cost of legal advice in the USA to finding the right partners in India) carried on into the evening networking session over drinks.
I found many interested in TiE Sydney's Mentoring Program that puts entrepreneurs together with those who've already 'been there, done that'. As a free service (mentors volunteer their time) it was not a hard sell! Membership of TiE Sydney is a prerequisite, but at $100 per year, that's affordable by most locals.
Overall, from lunch to cocktails, it was time well-spent and the feedback from participants was very positive, boding well for TiECON 2008.
[For others interested in TiE Mentoring, do email me at mentoring@sydney.tie.org.]
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