TiE Silicon Valley to help Indian startups grow their markets in the US

TiE Silicon Valley, the gateway for global entrepreneurs in the United States, is now working to train, mentor, and facilitate Indian startups to grow their markets in the US, the head of this top organisation for entrepreneurs from the IS sector has said.

"We see ourselves; TiE Silicon Valley is the gateway for the global entrepreneur. A bulk of those global entrepreneurs are coming from India," Anita Manwani, president of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) Silicon Valley told PTI in a recent interview.

Recently, TiE Silicon Valley has started the process of mentoring and helping Indian Startups to set up their foothold in the US.

It also signed a memorandum of understanding with the Indian government recently, specifically with Software Technology Parks of India that governs 22 centres of entrepreneurship across the country.

Such a MoU, she said, is going to allow a bi-directional interaction where investors from Silicon Valley will be going and meeting with startups, curated startups in India and vice versa, startups from India are going to be coming to TIE Silicon Valley for the Silicon Valley immersive programs to understand how to grow their markets in the United States, how to raise money in the US.

"So that's how we anticipate that working. And that's a big part," she said, as she applauded the prime minister for the progress that India has made in digitisation.

"It's the North Star for all countries for taking the digital stack to the common man. It is amazing. Today, 20 countries are using the Indian digital stack. I just heard them tell me that next year there will be 50. When you think about it, if there are more than 800 million people who are completely on the digital stack in India, here we are with a population of 300 million odd and we are nowhere close," Manwani told PTI.

"So, I think in this particular case, it's not about how do you see India's digital stack growing? I wish I had the insight of how we could make the US digital stack grow the same way so that the common man is completely connected in all of their digital and online activities, the way people are in India," she said.

Like in everything, just like in telecom, India's acceleration into mobile and 4G and 5G was a lot faster because they didn't have to go from analogue to digital.

"For the US we had to go from analog to digital. The challenge with all of us in the US is that a lot of our systems are digital in silos. So getting them all to talk to each other is a much bigger challenge than just introducing a new stack that India did. So yes, we are a little behind. Can we do it? We are Silicon Valley, we are America. And as a citizen of the United States, I feel very hopeful that we are going to get there with hopefully India's help," she said.

Describing it as India's decade, she said India is on such a winning track right now, that she feels proud to be of Indian origin.

"I feel proud. Every time I go to India, and I've just come back, I see the freeways, I travel on the road a lot and I see trucks and I see new vehicles. The common man doesn't have to worry about heat anymore. The buses are air-conditioned, but it is just the amount of trade that is going on. That's evident when you are driving because you see all the logistics and how much construction also there's going on."

"India being the largest purchaser of the fleet from Boeing just puts India at a very different level right now in terms of a US context. I am very, very positive and very bullish on India. We keep our fingers crossed that there are no missteps because in the end, India is the largest democracy and in a democracy, strange things can happen. So we hope that the course that has been set by the current leadership will continue that way and the course and they will not deter from that course," she said.

"I think that India has a lot to offer, a youthful population that is highly educated, that is very tech savvy, and this commitment to entrepreneurship is what's going to lead India into the next century," Manwani said.