Entrepreneurs Down Under

Youth Pitching Contest - late post!

2011-07-05T16:37:00.001+10:00

This is a late, late post but I have to say the Youth Pitching Event at the University of Sydney was a knockout affair! Eric Chau from the University of NSW won the first prize, a trip to Silicon Valley to attend the gala TIECON conference with 3,500 other attendees. He came back glowing, his 'life changed' - he said.

Check out the details on the TiE site, where you can also see his pitch on a YouTube clip.

We are now looking for angel investors to help Eric patent his eyedropper design and license it to manufacturers. Any comers?

TiE Women's Pitching Event a great success!

2011-03-09T09:12:00.000+11:00

The TiE Sydney Pitching Contest for Women Entrepreneurs on 2 March was an outstanding success. With 12 contestants, the range and quality of ideas and initiatives was exceptional. Panel judge Jennifer Zanich, serial entrepreneur and currently CEO of Xumii Services, commented that she had not seen this level of quality pitches, even in her second home of Silicon Valley. The buzz was palpable as each contestant, constrained to just 3 minutes, pitched to an imaginary group of angel investors for money and partnership.

As MC for the evening, my brief to the contestants was that the key objective of the pitch was not to get a cheque (even the most naive angel would not do this!) but to get a meeting. Then there was a chance of securing a cheque! The panel judges agreed they would give all the contestants a meeting opportunity, so they all came out ahead.

The winner was a late entry, Lucy Symons from Barefoot Power, who won a trip to India courtesy of TiE sponsor ACR Travels, see here. While the winners were chuffed, all contestants had positive feedback about their own learning experience.

Which, after all, was the primary goal of the event. Six contestants had also signed up for a TiE Sydney mentoring workshop to refine their pitches on Sunday 27 Feb. Alongwith fellow Board member Angelica Jacob and Charter Member Nitin Singhi, I ran this 3-hour workshop given my responsibility for TiE's Mentoring Program.

And what a delight it was! Young Jenny Lui, a second-year engineering student at UTS, stood out in her passion and obvious delight in pitching her wind turbine solution for city buildings to leverage wind energy for their own lighting. With participants in a wide range of age, experience and product-market propositions, everyone learnt as much from each other as from the counsel of the facilitators.

Now we are planning the Youth Pitching Contest in May, billed as a 'Clash of the Titans' between University of Sydney and the University of NSW. Should be just as much fun!

A great event and experience for all at TiE and the participants. Why not join our next event, a workshop on Networking on 6 April at the Sydney Hilton?

Exciting lineup of events for entrepreneurs at TiE Sydney 2011!

2011-01-17T14:08:00.000+11:00

On the new Board of TiE Sydney, the local chapter of the world's largest entrepreneur support network (www.tie.org), we have put together a string of 10 events for 2011 that should be of interest not only to entrepreneurs but movers and shakers within large organisations.

Selecting the broad theme of "Innovation" for 2011, we have three key events put together:

"Growth through Innovation" Workshop for Small and Medium Enterprises on 4 May;
"Leadership through Innovation" Workshop for Corporates/Larger organisations on 3 August;
TiECON 2011 - the flagship event on 5 October.

For the full schedule of events, click here. You can also check out and sign up for the free newsletter here.

This year we also have a focus on Women Entrepreneurs and are looking to partner other associations to offer free mentoring, joint events and for TiE Members, a chance to win a trip to India with a Pitching Contest on 2 March.

Why not join the 2011 Kick-off event at the swish new Sydney Hilton on 2 February - free for members, just $20 for non-members. With canapes and drinks courtesy of TiE, the business case is compelling!

And if you thought networking was not your strength, why not attend our Workshop on Networking on 6 April to build these essential skills?!

Check out www.sydneytie.info for more information or www.sydney.tie.org to find out more about TiE Sydney and the global TiE network across 56 Chapters in 13 countries!

Best with your startup or growth plans in 2011!

2011 Board for TiE Sydney

2010-12-16T12:30:00.000+11:00

Sydney has had an active Chapter of the TiE Global Entrepreneurs network since 2000. The power of TiE is in its network - 13,000 members, including 2,500 seasoned entrepreneurs. There are currently 56 TiE Chapters spread across 13 countries around the world.

The new Board of the Sydney Chapter was elected this month.

Pathy Pathmanaban	President
Vik Bansal	Director- Sponsorship
Manishi Dave	Treasurer
Angelica Jacob	Director- Events/PR and Marketing
Suresh Kumar	Director- Membership including CMs
Dilip Rao	Director- Mentoring and Alliances

If you are a seasoned entrepreneur who wants to make a contribution to the community, an entrepreneur looking for support and a helpful network or even an aspiring wannabe entrepreneur, do join us!

Best to all for 2011!

Meet Rama Bijapurkar on 2 Oct in Sydney

2009-09-29T17:39:00.002+10:00

For anyone interested, I am hosting a small get together with Rama Bijapurkar at Paymate's offices in Sydney (Level 25, 31 Market Street) in Sydney on 2 Oct from 5-6:30pm. Pls RSVP so we know numbers: dilip@paymate.com.

Should be insightful for anyone interested in the huge Indian consumer market!

See post below for details on Rama.

Winning in Indian Consumer Markets

2009-09-12T10:14:00.003+10:00

For Australian companies and entrepreneurs interested in venturing into the vast but tough Indian consumer market, there is a great opportunity coming up - to meet one of India's leading consumer marketing thought leaders.

Rama Bijapurkar serves on the Boards of Infosys, CRISIL, Axis Bank, Godrej Consumer Products, Give Foundation and Mahindra Holidays & Resorts. An alumna of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, Rama is a Visiting Faculty and on the IIMA Board of Governors.

I have to admit some bias, since Rama was a year my senior at IIMA, but with her career spanning leadership positions with McKinsey, AC Nielsen and Hindustan Lever, her credentials are impeccable. See: http://www.bijapurkar.com/.

Rama's visit to Sydney will be hosted by the Australian School of Business and the Australia India Business Council, with a talk on October 1, 2009, details as below.

Also participating will be Mr Amit Dasgupta, Consul General of India and Dr Julien Cayla, Senior Lecturer in Marketing, Australian School of Business.

"Winning in the Indian Market" : Rama Bijapurkar

6 pm Oct 1, 2009 (Drinks from 7-8 pm)

John B Reid Theater, AGSM Building, Gate 11 Botany Street

University of NSW, Kensington 2052

For registration contact: Ehsan Ahmed, e.ahmed@unsw.edu.au.

I would commend this event to all entrepreneurs and corporates interested in India.

TiE Sydney Biz Plan Contest Winner

2009-08-13T12:11:00.007+10:00

Last night was the final of the TiE Sydney Business Planning Contest and I was invited to join the panel of judges. The event was held at the MLC Centre, at the facilities provided by the NSW Department of State & Regional Development, a great supporter of TiE.

Well-attended by TiE members and guests, the evening was challenging for the contestants and stimulating for all. Five finalists had been selected the previous month, via an exciting Pitching Contest (five minutes to sell your dream!) that saw 18 contestants go for broke.

The finalists were:

Ahimsa Systems: This startup's vision is to empower individuals to improve their quality of life by managing their health in a secure and supportive environment. Founder Dr Uma Srinivasan presented the benefits of their RedMynt Personal Health Record to the ecosystem and the push by the Australian Federal Government to support private sector providers of such services.

IPScape: An established company with real clients and real revenue (always a plus!), this company is leading the Saas (software as a service) push into Call/Contact Centres that are burdened by high capital costs yet have an inflexible platform that cannot be rapidly scaled for bursts of demand. Founder Simon Burke pitched their 'cloud' technology and plan for expansion in both Australia and new markets in Asia including India.

Requisite Technologies: A startup aiming to transform the driver training industry with a comprehensive, online Driver Training Dashboard, this company is trialling their solution in Australia and wants to expand into the United Kingdom as well. Co-founder Pratyush Chalasani presented their plans to make life easier and more productive for driving instructors while improving learning outcomes for their clients.

Marziplanner: Already established as the #2 Wedding Planner product worldwide, this little company is already cash positive with a DIY software product used by brides to plan their elaborate nuptial events. Founder Ilka Brookes now wants to take the product into the enormous Indian market, where wedding extravaganzas with 3,000 guests are not uncommon!

Each contestant presented their plan and was quizzed by the panel as well as the audience. When the panel retired to come to a decision the audience also voted on their popular choice. As it happened, the same company was picked by the judges as well as the audience:

Marziplanner!

Ilka Brookes won the day with her knockout presentation, her understanding of the customers' pain (Bridezillas' notwithstanding) and passion for building a business with very little money or resources. We felt she had a good opportunity in India but would benefit from a local business partner and some mentoring from TiE - India can be a tough market for outsiders.

Ilka wins a free ticket to New Delhi, courtesy of TiE and member Arnold D'Souza (http://www.acrtravel.com.au/), and will attend TiECON New Delhi on 18-19 September 2009. This will be a great opportunity for Ilka to make connections and perhaps find an investor for her Indian adventure.

TiE Sydney is the local chapter of the global TiE organisation - the world's largest not-for-profit entrepreneur network. We run monthly events that attract entrepreneurs, wannabes and anyone interested in making the world a better place!

Winner of TiE Biz Planning Contest goes to Santa Clara

2008-04-03T10:41:00.002+11:00

On 2nd April, 2008, TiE Sydney hosted the second and final stage of a Contest for wannabe entrepreneurs, a Business Plan Contest.

Four people presented their business plans and were grilled by the Judging Panel:
- Lisa Louden (www.lacemates.com.au)
- Dipankar Choudhary (www.pyrozone.com.au)
- Rahul Bhargava (www.thinknourishment.com)
- Janaki Joshi (www.iris.com.au)

Lisa wowed the audience with her display of sports boots 'before' and 'after' - one with ugly black electrical tape keeping the laces in place, the other with a slick Lacemates-branded band. Lisa is getting snowed under with orders from sports shops and her websites. Now she needs funding to manufacture her patented products in bulk and sell in Australia and overseas.

Dipankar has a plan to market proven fire protection systems into the booming Indian market and showed the potential for profitable sales given some funding for a sales and marketing team led by him.

Rahul is a student at an early stage of a service that could be delivered online or at point of sales via mobile, enabling diet-conscious consumers to assess the nutritional value of the products they buy. He needs seed funding to build a prototype and finalise a business model.

The winner was, wait for it, Janaki Joshi with the unique Product Lifecyle Management system developed by IRIS and taken up by the Australian subsidiaries of global pharma companies like Pfizer. Janaki needs funding to market her product and services to the US and European head offices of her existing and new clients.

The judges said all four entrants were deserving of support and found it hard to pick the eventual winner. Janaki wins a free ticket, courtesy of TiE member Arnold D'Souza (www.acrtravel.com.au) to travel to the TiECON 2008 event in Santa Clara, May 16-17.

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

Our congratulations to Janaki and best wishes in raising funding in the months ahead.

All who attended also found the feedback from the panel to the contestants of great value in refining their own business plans. As a learning experience under the TiE Mentoring Program, the contest achieved all its objectives.

I would like to thank TiE members for their support and the panel of judges who chose the winner in this round:

- Nitin Singhi
- Mike Giles
- Bill Bartee

Do contact me for any information about TiE or our FREE Mentoring Program!

Pitching Event at TiE Sydney a great success!

2008-03-06T11:14:00.003+11:00

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.

Win a Trip to TiECON 2008 in Santa Clara, USA!

2008-02-05T09:04:00.000+11:00

TiECON 2008 Contest

Welcome to this contest organised by TIE Sydney!

TIE Sydney’s mission is to assist entrepreneurs from the Indus and wider Australian communities, turn great ideas into great businesses, through positive networking and mentoring.

This contest is one element of the TIE Mentoring Program made available to the TIE community.

The Prize

WIN a FREE TRIP to attend the top global TiE Conference in Santa Clara USA and meet VCs, Mentors, Peers and Partners from around the world. Attended by over 4,000 entrepreneurs & leaders, TiECON opens up tremendous opportunities to realize your dream by connecting to right people, secure funding and grow.

You must be a TiE Sydney member to be eligible to enter this competition.

Over the next two months, TiE Executives & local VCs will run Pitching Competition and conduct a Business Plan review to select the most-deserving entrepreneur from Sydney to attend TiECON for free.

There’s a Free return airticket (Economy Class) to USA on offer from Singapore Airlines!

The 2 day Conference, packed with workshops, VC Sessions and Networking, is FREE for you to attend (including food/drinks during the Conference).

Conference Details: TiECON 2008 at Santa Clara on May 16-17, 2008 at Santa Clara Convention Centre.

Watch this space: www.tiecon.org.

For more information or to join TIE Sydney’s Mentoring Program, go to www.sydney.tie.org.

Events for Entrepreneurs - Nov/Dec07

2007-11-19T10:34:00.000+11:00

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!

TiE Sydney Conference Gets Entrepreneurs Going!

2007-11-14T15:12:00.000+11:00

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.]