Feb 20, 2012
TiEcon organizers kicked off the planning for TiEcon 2012, with
continuing goal to deliver the best TiEcon ever. Successfully year
after enthusiastic organizers have delivered a conference that is
vibrant with opportunities for professionals, looking to advance
their careers, staying connected with their peers, looking at
staying in touch with the emerging trends, and looking for access
to angels and VC community. Year after year, they have exceeded the
goal to deliver the best TiEcon, by adding new and exciting
offerings, like TiE50, TiE Expo and more, by attracting the best
and most sought after speakers and panels, and by keeping the
enormous volunteer pool engaged, with exciting volunteering
opportunities. It is perhaps the only conference where hundreds of
volunteers often spend hours toiling in the trenches, and then
claim to get more out of this conference than at any other
conference.
So what is going to be the focus this year? If I could have my
wish list, it would include the following. Some discussion on
social media and where will be next disruption in social media.
Television has always been inherently social activity. People
gathered around the tube when TV was just introduced and friends
still gather around the tube to enjoy sports events like Super
Bowl, Academy Awards, and movies. Will there be re-socializing
television by integrating it with social media. Is Pinterest the
next big thing in social media? Even in it's "by invitation-only"
beta phase, the company has attracted 7 million plus visitors and
is driving more traffic to company websites and blogs than YouTube,
Google+, and LinkedIn combined. With growing cybercrime with huge
and costly implications for corporations, how will we enhance
network security? Besides managing new and emerging systems, how
will companies protect data and information?
Will TiEon focus on Energy and Life Science industries? Despite
the major Soyndra fiasco, we would like to see some discussions on
solving energy challenges? Apparently, there are huge potential
advantages to making cheap fuel from seaweed or macro-algae and Bio
Architecture Lab in Berkeley is currently building huge seaweed
farms. It remains to be seen how it will scale. Will there be
discussions on electric cars with durable and long lasting battery,
even on harnessing solar power more effectively, and other
potential breakthroughs to deal with the energy challenges. I will
absolutely love to see some serious focus on Life Science industry.
Some of the current major buzz words are the new frontiers of
synthetic biology, wireless devices, and the continuing interest
though not much progress in personalized medicine (with the
exception of Herceptin and recent launch of Zelboraf). Scientists
will be heavily focusing on understanding the brain, and perhaps
mapping the brain by zooming in on single neurons (brain has
billions of them). Understanding breakdowns within the neurons will
enable targeted gene therapies, besides the current focus of
personalized medicine, in oncology.
And finally, what new and innovative ways will the TiEcon enable
entrepreneurs and other dedicated professionals to come together
and leverage what each has to offer, to mutual advantage? Each
year, TiEcon has responded to the external opportunities and
challenges with new offerings like extended and serious focus on
Women's Forum to encourage and ensure women professionals'
participation at TiEcon 2011, Outer Realm sessions at 2010 TiEcon,
to challenge perceptual boundaries in technological, marketing, and
cognitive realm and allow for cross-functional collaboration,
Business Bootcamp sessions in 2009 to provide hands-on tips to the
entrepreneurs, during the fledgling economy, and so on. Now in
2012, the economy is on the path to gradual recovery but
uncertainty and funding challenges linger. We have high
expectations that TiEcon 2012 will give yet again a positive boost
to the professionals to follow their dreams, and offer sessions and
strategies with tools and techniques, to enable them to achieve
their dreams.
Friends, stay tuned in the coming weeks, for best price deals
for early registration, and I look forward to seeing many of you at
the best TiEcon ever, TiEcon 2012!
 No comments Feb 13, 2012
Q. What is the most important thing one
should look for when recruiting co-founders ?
A.
Complimentary skills, personal chemistry, professional respect and
past experience. Complimentary skills and personal chemistry
outweighs past experience though.
Q. What's your thoughts on adding ones
spouse as a partner?
A. if your spouse is qualified to be a
co-founder then it is a consideration. Many companies like vmware cisco bridge started out as spouses.
Q. Should one write a detailed biz plan
before they start a company?
A. Business plan should be written by
entrepreneur for him/herself. Business plan should include
founder's background, company's differentiation, competition, go to
market, finance. common to have Power
Point plan for investors with detailed financial.
Q. What should be the length of my
presentation to pitch to an angel or VC?
A. 10-12 slides, demo if
available.
Q. What sectors should #entrepreneurs be looking at right
now? What's hot?
A. Look for what you are passionate about.
mobile sector is hot but no real
big winners yet. social sector is still hot but
becoming more difficult to monetize. cloud sector is hot but requires
funding to proceed beyond prototype. healthit sector is hot but has too
many regulatory barriers. energy sector is hot but very
capital intensive
Q. What's the right time to incorporate a
company?
A. incorporate company soon and at least
as soon as you are sure you want to take the plunge. It is best to
consult a lawyer for incorporation advice. Many resources are
available @startupamerica. If doing company where you will
raise company do C-corp. S-corp is a good option if doing one
shareholder co with limited liability. if you are doing a
consulting co S-Corp or Limited
partnership is better
Q. How about idea outside of the domain
expertise. Is it worth proceeding with idea?
A. if you are passionate and confident
pursue outside your core domain.I have gone slightly away from my
last company
Q. What's important for a VC/angel? A
great product idea or a team?
A. Angels invest in early, product is more
important to them. VCs invest
after angels, team is as important as product.
Q. I am ready to pitch to a VC. What
should I expect in my first meeting?
A. Don't expect VCs to know your space as
well as you do. So educate.
Q. How
can I get a vc for my startup?
A. Research
VCs who know your space & then ask someone from your circle who
knows them to introduce you. Easiest and fastest way to
raise money is from friends and family. Should you do that? It
depends. Give friends and family convertible note with some
discount and value when outside investors come in. When outside
investors value the company after friends & family round, it
creates value.
No comments May 14, 2011
Every year, The Indus Entrepreneur (TiE) throws the largest
entrepreneurial conference of the world, TiEcon. Though the
membership is primarily of Indian descent, the event is open to
all. It brings great entrepreneurs, VCs, inspiring keynote speakers
and aspiring entrepreneurs together to learn and network with each
other. I like to go every year because it's my chance to touch the
entrepreneurial sun and remember why I've spent so much of my
career in starting and building companies.
Sometimes, you get down on yourself because the process is always a
lot longer and harder than you originally thought. The process of
creating a new company, a new product, a new brand and a strong
culture is always is always easier on paper than reality. The world
is skeptical of what you are building because invariably you are
going against the existing order. You have to be able to handle far
more no's than yes' while keeping your confidence at an unshakable
level.
Today helped me reconnect with that energy and spirit. I really
enjoyed the keynotes. Steve Case was great not only because of his
amazing and well-known AOL experience, but more because of what he
is doing to further entrepreneurship through StartUp America. The organization is trying to
replicate the Silicon Valley entrepreneurial infrastructure and
ecosystem all around the country. New companies that have created
all the new jobs in the US over the last 20 years. Large companies
have been static or declining, so it's important to harness
American creativity to build the next Google, Facebook or
Genentech.
Dr. David Ferrucci of IBM presented a detailed account of the
Watson project where they built a computer system to beat Jeopardy
Master Champions. I liked how they structured the problem and
measured success. They knew this would come in iterations, however
each iteration had to be designed in a modular fashion that had
sufficient headroom to improve with experience. Given our efforts
to improve sentiment analysis with Position2 Brand
Monitor, I could appreciate the difficulties that the IBM team
had in trying to parse wide-ranging yet unstructured Jeopardy
answers and quickly come up with the right answer. Natural Language
Processing (NLP) is a hard problem to solve especially with
analogies and allusions. Given the brevity of Jeopardy answers,
it's like reading a tweet and understanding that "bad" sometimes is
actually positive. Given the long tail of subjects, building a
recognition engine that understands language and responds quickly
not only is cool, but has a wide range of applications from
medicine to education to... yes... call centers.
The capstone keynote was Vinod Khosla, the entrepreneurial maven who not
only got Sun off the ground but built so many successful firms at
Kleiner Perkins and now his own fund. He discussed his research on
the energy transformation. The experts are wrong, as Vinod offered
years of expert forecasts that were completely wrong - as much as
5x for the price of oil. The world has a situation where 5.5
billion people want to live and consume like 500 million. China's
oil consumption is expected to grow gradually, but if it follows
Japan's or S. Korea's growth curve, oil consumption will be 3-4x
today within a couple of decades. However, Khosla believes that oil
prices will drop dramatically. He also believe as will electricity
use will drop steeply as well. This will be done in a way that is
not government support dependent. His thesis is based on the black
swan theory where discontinuities are the norm rather than what
typical probabilities represent. Linear thinking doesn't work for
him - it's about exponents and discontinuities cause by new
technologies and steep cuts in price. I took some notes on
interesting energy companies in his deck:
Kior - renewable, biofuel based oil that is less expensive than
fossil oil
Ecomotor - an engine platform that double gas mileage
Ciris - driving methane from coal mines done with mining
Calera - converting CO2 emissions from power plants into mineral
products
Soraa - 80% more efficient light that pays for itself in year
1
Lightsail - using compressed air storage to triple electric grid
capacity
Then there was some company that would make sugar from pine chips
reducing the vast amount of corn production used primarily for high
fructose corn syrup and animal feed.
Khosla's belief is that technology innovation would rise to the
challenge of energy, food and natural resource demand. After
listening to him, some of the concern about $150 oil diminishes,
because people will find a way to develop cheap energy. These
technologies need to win in an unsubsidized market which can do to
energy like Carnegie did to steel (cut the cost by 80%).
As exciting as Khosla was, I enjoyed seeing some of the TiE50
winners in social media and mobile. Each firm had a different
story, but they all had really unique ways of looking at the world.
They had an intensity and energy that was contagious. Even the VC
panel on social media indicated to me that we were on the right
track of mining social media data to create actionable insights and
engagement for brands. The key was to listen to people, learn from
their ideas, but remember that you need to follow the beat of your
own drum.
I came away this Friday at TiEcon 2011 energized about the great
things that entrepreneurs can do. It was fun to reconnect with many
of the volunteers that put together this special event that
highlights how people can go outside themselves and change the
world in a positive way that also builds wealth. It's not a zero
sum game. I'm sure my team is ready for the many new ideas I will
hit them with on how to leverage our social media technology for
growing brands, especially ones on reducing friction.
Onwards to tomorrow, where I'm taking Arjun to expose him to this
special Silicon Valley world.
1 comment . May 13, 2011
At TiEcon 2011 keynote session (www.tiecon.org), Dr. David
Ferrucci discussed the phenomenal challenges of building Watson, an
artificial intelligence computer system that competed with human
subjects in the quiz show Jeopardy and consistently outperformed
the human competitors. Compared to the Deep Blue, the
chess-playing computer, developed in 1997, the Watson Deep QA
project was infinitely more challenging. Chess is finite,
mathematically well defined with limited number of moves.
Computer can be really good at mathematically challenges and can
find information very quickly. Jeopardy however is a
significantly more complex challenge. Not only Watson had to
navigate through the complexity of human speech which is infinitely
more complex, contextual, idiomatic and full of puns and
expressions that alter the meaning of the words but additionally
Watson had to demonstrate the level of confidence it had in the
answer it came up with and it had to do all that in a matter of
seconds. Watson got better at the game and finally came up
with answers at the average speed of 3 seconds. Watson had
access to over 200 million pages of structured and unstructured
content consuming several terabytes of storage. While Watson
outperformed its human opponents most of the time, it had trouble
responding to several categories. Ferruci shared several
examples where Watson was completely off the mark and that gave
impressive evidence of how infinitely complex human speech is,
where meaning of the same words is often determined or altered
based on the order of the words, the sentence structure, placement
of commas and exclamation marks etc.
At TiEcon, this was a breakthrough keynote, considering that
most keynotes focus on the business aspect. Ferrucci's
presentation was technical and fascinating and kept the audience
riveted, soaking up the impressive information.
Ferrucci discussed the implications of this project in several
other domains, with the members of the press. It is possible
that Watson-based technology, or services built upon it, might
appear and might have implications in a wide range of
industries. Application in disease and healthcare diagnosis
for instance, can be an invaluable tool to aid the doctors rarely
have enough time with each patient to consider all possible
data. Also unlike many previous projects, Watson shows
considerable similarity of thinking with the human mind. For
instance, Watson is programmed for uncertainty. It is often
not completely confident and rather gives an answer with a certain
level of confidence making it easier to determine how much weight
to give to the answer given. Truly fascinating project.
Darshana Varia Nadkarni,
Ph.D.
Twitter @DarshanaN
web - darshanavnadkarni.wordpress.com
No comments May 13, 2011
TiEcon 2011 www.tiecon.org began on Day 1 with fireside
chat with Mr. Steve Case, Chairman of Revolution LLC and the Case
Foundation. Case said he was motivated and encouraged by
entrepreneurship opportunities in the internet when he read Third
Wave by Alvin Toffler. He is more interested in build to last
model rather than the build to flip companies that were started in
late 90s. Going forward, Case sees opportunities in the
ubiquity of mobility of the internet. Talking about his
investment in Zip car, Case said he sees second internet revolution
in future that will transform everyday life. These companies
will harness the mobile power of the internet but will not
necessarily be in the internet business, said Case. Case said
he is excited about his participation in public policy dialog, in
DC and sees entrepreneurship as job creation and as economic engine
of growth.
No comments May 13, 2011
TiEcon 2011 www.tiecon.org kicked off with
welcome
remarks from Executive Director, Ms. Kiran Kini Malhotra and
President of TiE SV, Mr. Vish Mishra. Mishra welcomed
attendees coming from near and far and stressed the significance of
TiE in creating the entrepreneurial ecosystem worldwide. TiE
has chapters in 57 cities in 13 countries. Mr. Jai Rawat, the
Convenor of TiE, noted that TiEcon is a place where entrepreneurs
find the tools to mold their ideas and act upon their
passions. Rawat gave a glimpse into the conference
highlighting the keynotes and noting the verticals focused in this
TiEcon. Rawat also stressed the new features at this
TiEcon providing more focused networking opportunities, including
Mentor Connect, Presdo Match, and designated lunch areas for
focused connections. Mr. Prakash Aggarwal, co-convenor of
TiEcon welcomed attendees to stay around for the party that will go
late into the night on Day 2.
Darshana
Darshana Varia Nadkarni,
Ph.D.
Medical Device/ Biotech Recruitment
No comments May 12, 2011
This Friday and
Saturday we celebrated our largest entrepreneurs event of the year:
TiEcon
2011. We have over 3,300
registered attendees and 143 speakers! Our speaker
line up this year is extraordinary. Recently we've announced 2 new
keynotes: Marissa Mayer (Google) and
Drew Houston (Dropbox). In addition to
the inspiring keynotes and breakthrough sessions, here are some
tips to make the most of your time while at the
conference.
Networking
Made Easy
Unparalleled networking has consistently been one of the top
reasons to attend TiEcon. This year we have introduced two new
programs to take it to the next level:
Networking with
legends and leaders:
We have introduced a new program this year called "Mentor
Connect". It will give you the opportunity to meet face to face
with top entrepreneurs, business leaders and investors. We
urge you to pre-register for this unique and invaluable opportunity
as the space is limited. For more about MentorConnect, click
here.
Networking with fellow
attendees:
We
are proud to announce a new networking platform,
Presdo-match
this year. Using this platform you can:
- See
who's attending TiEcon and set up meetings with them ahead
of
time
- Communicate
with other attendees easily and securely
- Sign
up for networking events
It
only takes a minute! You should have received an invitation to join
the networking platform after registering. If you
didnot
receive the invitation email, click
here, then select the 'Get your
welcome
email' button.
Networking in our Innovation
Expo:
This year's Innovation Expo is our largest yet. You will see over
120 exhibitors including companies like IBM, Microsoft,
Symantec and many hot startups including
SmrtGuard, Stoke, Luna Ergnomics, Claritics, Glassbeam,
Sococo, Shankar
Mahadevan Academy and many more from technology
sectors of Mobile, Internet/Social Media, Software/Cloud, Energy, and Life
Sciences.
Our Expo hall layout makes it easy for you to find your area of
interest and meet with potential partners, clients, and employers
in these fields.
Register for TiEcon
►
PROMO
CODE: This
short survey gives you $150 off TiEcon
2011!
Must See at
TiEcon 2011
Keynotes: Steve Case, Vinod Khosla,
Marissa Mayer, Drew Houston, David Ferrucci, and Sal Khan
Vertical Sessions: These are industry specific
sessions which will give you a glimpse into the latest trends,
opportunities and investment focus areas.
Entrepreneurs Track: These sessions will provide
the essential tools every entrepreneur needs. They have been
designed to address the needs at various stages of a startup. Pick
the right session(s) based on your needs.
TiE50 Presentations: This is a great opportunity
to hear from the top startups and learn their secrets of success.
TiE50 winners from the previous two years have already accounted
for over $3b in valuation. The winners this year are no
different.
Hope this will be helpful in planning and maximizing the benefit
from the two days of TiEcon.
This
short survey gives you $150 off TiEcon
2011!
View the complete agenda and speaker list at www.tiecon.org.
Register for TiEcon
►
No comments May 11, 2011
TiEcon 2011, www.tiecon.org will be hosting 3500+ attendees
this weekend at Santa Clara Convention Center, at what has now
become the largest annual entrepreneurship conference. Scores
of others will be checking out new products and technologies at the
expo. As a self employed individual, it got me thinking about
challenges and rewards of being an entrepreneur. And boy,
have there been challenges, especially during 2009 and 2010 as
small businesses such as mine, got a serious beating. But
then there are rewards tied to the knowledge that the buck stops at
you. Wikipedia describes an entrepreneur as a person who has
possession of a new enterprise, venture, or idea and is accountable
for the inherent risks and the outcome. Just the definition
is heady enough to want to get aboard the train and try the
opportunity to paint the canvas of life with one's own creative
enterprise.
As I trace my professional journey, when I completed my PhD in
Psychology, the path I visualized was in academia. However,
about 3 years after completing my doctorate, based on some multi
cultural research paper, I got a call to participate in diversity
trainings. In my very first diversity training project for a
large global corporation, I facilitated 100+ trainings, of one and
two day duration, all over theUS. The organization also
became a recipient of Ron Brown Award for Corporate Leadership in
Diversity, presented by then President Bill Clinton. By then
I was hooked. At that time, I gave little thought to
entrepreneurship per se. But I enjoyed diversity of my
work. I began facilitating various different kinds of
trainings for many organizations. I enjoyed traveling,
meeting people, being able to sail through difficult flight
schedules and more significantly through difficult
conversations. Here are some examples of how entrepreneurship
often does not involve routine days. I was flying out of
Atlanta in 2002 when a man ran past security and the entire airport
was shut down causing national and international flight
delays. I spent 24 hours at the airport to catch my flight
out of what had become a zoo. Similarly I was stuck at
Houston airport during Hurricane Rita, another time I missed my
flight home at Chicago airport as I dozed off sitting by the gate,
and once I got off at the wrong airport at Boston while I was on my
way to Vermont and then adamantly demanded an explanation why my
car was not there when I had pre-booked it. Regarding
difficult conversations, I can enlist as many examples.
Training midnight shift crew, I walked into the room at midnight,
and a man stood up, pointed his finger at me and angrily said he "
will not appreciate being told that gays have equal rights at his
workplace and if I was there to tell him that then I better leave,
before I even open my mouth". Another time, a man got up and
said, he liked to tell crude jokes on women and other groups and
challenged me to try saying anything that would stop him. And
another time, two men turned their chairs around towards the wall
and sat talking with each other (albeit quietly) but refused to
turn the chairs around and participate in the class. I love
all these challenges and love the feedback and reward of often
being able to make a real and positive difference in the short
time.
A few years ago, as traveling was becoming challenging due to
security concerns, a friend of mine was looking for a job and
another friend was looking to hire someone. I suggested they
meet and from that encounter one friend found a great employee and
another one found a great job. My hiring friend suggested I
do that for a fee and find people for him. Voila - that was a
start of another career as a professional recruiter. I
focused on the niche market of medical device and biotech.
Once again I was hooked. I loved the challenge of meeting new
people, learning about rules and regulations, learning about new
industry, new products and technologies with great potential to
impact health and well being of humankind. I attended trade
shows, conferences, expos as much to meet and network and develop
my business as to learn about this absolutely fascinating
industry.
After all these years has the ride been worth it? Friends
advised me to "quit the madness, and take a real job" when I had
difficulties getting sitters after my divorce and needed to travel
for training, and other friends again advised me to give up
recruitment and get a real job when the market crashed in
2009. Sometimes friends assumed that I was available any time
during the day because I was not doing a "real job". And
surely at times the challenges seemed immense, the toughest one
being the market downturn in 2009. But hey I have enjoyed the
ride, the dreams, the possibility of making as much money as the
work I would put in and I enjoyed the possibility of taking time
off and travel when my kids were out of school. I don't
believe any job would allow the dreams that you can dream (well
within reach) as your own business. A job is a job that
allows the possibility of promotions. If you are an
entrepreneur you can dream and dream big and chances are much
better than similar dreams you can have when you buy a lottery
ticket. Unlike a job, you can dream of 2X, 3X, 4X and more
income. Entrepreneurship is challenging, it is fun, it is
exhilarating, and it is inspiring. Entrepreneurship takes out
the boredom, gives meaning to life, gives an opportunity to
exercise your creativity to the extent you can reach out of any
given box, and makes life worth living. Gotta try it at least
once in a lifetime. Even those who have tried and not
succeeded and gone back to regular jobs say that it is
exhilarating, gives a different perspective, and is well worth a
ride.
Along with many successful entrepreneurs, many wannabe
entrepreneurs will be converging at TiEcon this week, with big
dreams in their eyes and will hopefully walk away with strategy to
translate them into reality, knowing that just one ride makes life
a worthwhile adventure.
Register for TiEcon
►
No comments May 11, 2011
Folks,
just thought of sharing Shankar Mahadevan's personal invitation to
TiEcon 2011.
TiEcon Team
------------------
I'd like to personally invite you to celebrate the night away with
spectacular performances from all around the world. Relax and have
some laughs with Dan Nainan, and enjoy the
tantalizing flavors of Junnoon as they present culinary innovations
from Pan-Asia to the Middle East to Spain & Italy laced with
Indian spices. Very talented dancers and performers are ready to
make you move and sing this Saturday night!
Come
join me and all your friends for a night of entertainment and
celebration. Tour de Globe with us by getting your tickets today,
at www.tiecon.org
For more information on the artists, go to TiECon Entertainment
Page.
See
you at TiEcon!
Shankar Mahadevan
Singer and Founder, Shanker Mahadevan Academy
Tour de Globe with Shankar
Mahadevan!
You'<
ll also be charmed by Dan Nainan, as
he hosts you to a program of colorful and energizing
performances:
Tickets
Full Pass: Closing Celebrations Gala 6:00pm-12:00am
Experience
Reception, Banquet, and Entertainment
Entertainment Only Pass: 8:00pm -12:00am
Entertainment
Program Only
Doors
Open at 7:30
Please note that the Banquet
and Entertainment are for Adults ages 18 and over.
Register for TiEcon
►
Tell Shankar
which songs to sing on Shankar's Facebook, and
learn how to sing at Shankar Mahadevan
Academy!
TiEcon
Conference Pass and Innovation Expo Only Pass
This year we have over 3,200 registered attendees and counting!
Our speaker line up this year is extraordinary. Recently we've
announced 2 new keynotes: Marissa Mayer (Google) and
Drew Houston (Dropbox). View the complete agenda
and speaker list at www.tiecon.org. Join us this Friday and
Saturday as we celebrate innovation, technology, and
entrepreneurship.
This
short survey gives you $150 off TiEcon
2011!
On
a Budget?
At this year's TiEcon we are introducing Expo
Only attendance for just $25. You will
see over 120+ exhibitors including companies like IBM, Microsoft,
Symantec and many hot startups including CipeherCloud,
Intellisolar, Glassbeam, GeodesicCan, Shankar Mahadevan Academy and
many more. The Expo Only pass is a
great opportunity to network with potential partners, customers, or
employers!
Register for TiEcon
►
No comments May 10, 2011
TiE Silicon Valley announced today that Drew Houston, Founder & CEO of
Dropbox, one of the hottest startups in Silicon Valley, will
deliver the 2nd day opening keynote speech on Saturday, May 14th at TiEcon 2011.
Houston will discuss his experiences in building a service that has
reached 25M consumers around the world in less than 3 years.
TiEcon 2011 will take place at the Santa Clara Convention Center, May 13-14. Each year, the conference brings
together a diverse and dynamic group of leaders from business,
technology, venture capital, and media for two days of education,
inspiration, and networking.
"We are very excited to have Drew
Houston speak at our annual conference, TiEcon. Drew was
named to the elite list of Twenty Something Entrepreneurs by
Business Week and his experience in building an Internet
power house in such a short time will be an inspiration to
thousands of entrepreneurs at this year's conference," said Vish Mishra, President of TiE Silicon
Valley.
Drew Houston is CEO and
Co-Founder of Dropbox, and has led Dropbox's
growth from a simple idea to a service relied upon by millions
around the world. Drew leads all of Dropbox's activities, and is
actively involved in its business and product decisions. Dropbox
has the backing of Sequoia Ventures and Accel Partners. Dropbox,
since its launch in 2008, has grown to 25 million users in 175
countries, making it a truly global phenomenon.
Before founding Dropbox, Drew attended MIT where he studied computer science. He
took a quick leave from school to form Accolade, an online SAT prep
startup, and also worked as a software engineer for Bit9. After
graduating from MIT, Drew recognized
that people needed a way to bring their files with them without
sending email attachments or carrying USB drives. He began writing
a solution to this problem in early 2007 before showing an early
version to Arash Ferdowsi in Boston. The two of them then began
working on the project that would eventually become Dropbox.
"I am delighted to speak at the world's largest conference
for entrepreneurs and am excited to share what we've learned
in building a fast-growing company serving millions of people,"
said Drew Houston.
TiEcon 2011:
Innovation Reigns will feature session tracks and keynote
speeches focused on key market segments: Cloud, Mobile, Social,
Energy and Life Sciences. Other keynotes at TiEcon 2011 include:
Steve Case, Co-Founder of AOL and
Chair of the Startup America Partnership; Vinod Khosla, Founding CEO of Sun
Microsystems/ Founder of Khosla Ventures; Drew Houston, Founder and CEO of Dropbox;
Sal Khan, Educator and Founder of
the Khan Academy; David Ferrucci,
Lead IBM Watson Scientist; and Marissa
Mayer, VP of Location and Local Services at Google.
TiE
50, the 3rd annual awards program to recognize the "Top 50
Emerging Companies," will be a prominent part of this year's TiEcon
conference. Selected from thousands of nominations from all over
the world, previous winners have gone on to achieve great
success.
Register for TiEcon 2011 today by visiting www.tiecon.org.
Follow TiEcon on Twitter, Facebook, and on YouTube.
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