Pitching Event at TiE Sydney a great success!

On 5th March 2008, TiE Sydney hosted the first in a two-stage Contest for wannabe entrepreneurs, a Pitching Contest. The prize, to be awarded after the next stage - Business Planning - is a free trip to TiECON 2008 in Santa Clara, TiE's icon event in May 2008.

Attendance was strong with regular members as well as visitors joining the event at Swissotel in Market Street, Sydney.

We had 12 'pitchers' last night and a commendable effort by all, some who were pitching for the very first time - takes a lot of courage! The panel consisted of Ivan Kaye of BSI, Nitin Singhi ex-Colonial and Mike Giles who runs Wealth Point. All pitchers got immediate feedback on their presentations and whether a VC would take a second meeting or not.

Finally, four qualifed to go on to the next and final round in theTiECON Contest, our congratulations to:

- Lisa Louden (www.lacemates.com.au)
- Dipankar Choudhary (www.pyrozone.com.au)
- Rahul Bhargava (yet to launch a nutrition assessment web service for diet-conscious housewives)
- Janaki Joshi (www.iris.com.au)

To find out more about TiECON 2008, see: http://www.tiecon.org/TiESVHome/HomeView.

Here is some background on our Judging Panel last night:

Ivan Kaye
Director, Business Strategies International

Ivan established BSI in 1989 and since that time has assisted clients with accessing capital, debt and grants, with a focus on Innovative Companies accessing international markets. He has been involved in several venture capital investments and is on the executive of two Venture Capital Funds. Prior to BSI, Ivan worked with PWC.

Ivan has assisted more than 50 companies access finance and engage in commercial arrangements in the past 3 years. Throughout his career, he has been involved in helping start-ups, corporations and emerging companies achieve their growth potential.

Nitin Singhi

Nitin Singhi worked as a corporate lawyer in Sydney and London for 10 years and then at Colonial First State Private Equity for 7 years running a successful $100 million fund in Sydney with a mandate to invest in Australian and New Zealand businesses. During his time at Colonial, Nitin sat on the board of a number of companies including Mincom, Hotel Dynamics, Technisyst and Goodlife Health Clubs and was responsible for the entry and exit of these businesses by the fund. The team at Colonial received about 400 deals for review every year.

Mike Giles
CEO, WealthPoint

Mike has been through many of the phases typical a TiE entrepreneur can expect.

Now on his second startup – Mike took his first business:
- from Australia to the US,
- Raised funding while overseas
- Sold to a silicon valley firm
- Made it back home after 7 years

His latest business with strong links to TiE network now takes him regularly to India as an outsourcer and an exporter.