The secrets of success: Indian entrepreneurs rely on the IndUS network for inspiration, advice and money

Chief Executive, The, Oct, 2005 by Kim Girard

When Indu Navar, chief executive of Serus, needed an angel investor for her software startup in 2001, she turned to the most obvious place to find it: her own community. She met Ronjon Nag, a handwriting recognition software pioneer at a wireless technology event hosted by The IndUS Entrepreneurs, a nonprofit networking group. Nag promised her $100,000 after she landed her first customer. "You don't even know me," Navar recalls telling Nag. Not a problem for Nag, who knew Navar by reputation as one of Silicon Valley's most promising young women engineers. "You remind me of myself at your age," he said.

Navar and her investors, who now include Gateway Design Automation founder Prabhu Goel, Diamondhead Ventures co-founder Raman Khanna and Wind River Systems Vice Chairman Naren Gupta, have more than their ethnicity in common. All are involved with the The IndUS Entrepreneurs, or TiE. Since its founding in 1992, Santa Clara, Calif.-based TiE has created one of the most powerful networks in Silicon Valley, arguably in the entire global technology industry. Its senior members helped to fund or found companies like Brocade Communications, Exodus Communications, Juniper Networks, Cerent and Hotmail.

The daughter of a Bangalore entrepreneur, Navar knows how lucky she is to be able to have the TiE network. "It's so intense," she says. "There's always this connection you find (with members). It's not just about business. You connect back to your childhood, your mother, your grandmother, Bangalore, what streets we lived on." Earlier generations of Indian engineers who flocked to Silicon Valley during the 1970s and 1980s might have had similar connections, but they did not enjoy Navar's funding options or her network of successful tech elders.

With membership open to anyone with roots or business interests in India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka, TiE now spans nine countries, from its California hub to nearly 42 global chapters. TiE even ignored historical rivalries by moving into India's arch political enemy, Pakistan. But aside from the U.S., India is where most of the group's efforts have been focused and those efforts have helped spur India's overall technological emergence. "Over the last six or seven years, India's economy has skyrocketed and TiE and India are feeding off of each other," says Umesh Ramakrishnan, co-founder of executive search firm Christian & Timbers, who speaks at TiE events. "We've not even begun to see the results of what these folks have begun to put in place over these past several years."

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Today, TiE events are a parade of the Who's Who among CEOs and VCs of Silicon Valley, from founding Sun Microsystems CEO and Kleiner Perkins venture partner Vinod Khosla to former McKinsey CEO Rajat Gupta to former Hotmail founder Sabeer Bhatia, who sold his company to Microsoft in 1998 for $400 million. "TiE is the best kept secret," says Bhatia, who in April launched a new startup. Bangalore-based collaboration software startup InstaColl. Others jokingly call TiE the Indian Mafia, the invisible hand behind at least 300 startup companies at any given moment.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

TiE's network includes more than 10,000 global members. At its core are 1,200 senior "charter" members, brought into TiE's inner circle by invitation only. Of that senior group, 122 are company founders, chairmen, presidents or CEOs. The rest are executives or partners at various firms. Add a troop of 500 volunteers like Bhatia who are not only increasingly investing in or starting companies in India, but speaking publicly to inspire more Indian entrepreneurs and the TiE network becomes even more powerful. "I travel the world over (to speak on behalf of TiE)," says Bhatia, who recently returned from Australia's TiE chapter. "But I do it on my own dime for me. It's to motivate young entrepreneurs."

While TiE's Silicon Valley chapter is the organization's hub, spreading the TiE gospel is the charge of its chapters. About every other day a TiE event is held around the globe from Pittsburgh to Melbourne, Australia. Discussions range from the basics of entrepreneurship to outsourcing opportunities to investing in real estate in India. In the U.S. outside of the Valley, Boston and Austin, both college towns, are the busiest TiE chapters.

Gururaj "Desh" Deshpande, co-founder and chairman of Sycamore Networks who started TiE's Boston chapter in 1998, says it took a few years for the group to gel, largely because they had to figure out how to convince potential charter members that it was worth $1,500 to get some free cups of coffee and attend networking dinners. "We gave that up and said, 'For $1,500, you get to help others'," he says. The philanthropic pitch seemed to work. Boston's chapter grew to 100 charter members, a third who are very active. About 750 members, like most TiE members, pay $100 to join. "People seem to find value in sharing experiences," Deshpande says, adding that interacting with the next generation has been invaluable for him. "At universities every year you get a new crop, whereas companies age together," he says. "It's important to keep in touch with new ideas and new blood."