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.]
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