Presented by TiE Silicon Valley
TiE Silicon Valley, the not-for-profit organization dedicated to fostering tech entrepreneurship, has its annual flagship conference, TiEcon, coming up on May 5th and 6th.
This year’s speakers include Tim Draper of DFJ, biotech billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong, Dave McClure of 500 Startups, Bonny Simi of JetBlue Technology Ventures, Mohit Aron of Cohesity, Florian Leibert of Mesosphere, Sheng Liang of Rancher Labs, Estonia CIO Siim Sikkut, and more.
In addition, Jyoti Bansal of AppDynamics will be sharing his entrepreneurial journey on starting the company as an engineer and exiting as one of largest enterprise software acquisitions by Cisco for $4.7B. He will be receiving TiE Silicon Valley’s inaugural Entrepreneur of the Year award on Saturday, May 6th.
Supplementing the inspirational speaking sessions, TiEcon is introducing two programs: a mentoring session called Words of Wisdom and a one-day International Startup Bootcamp for entrepreneurs the day before the conference. The goal of the programs is to offer entrepreneurs structured opportunities to build their businesses during TiEcon in addition to the content and networking opportunities.
At previous TiEcons, mentorship sessions were held around the lunch hour in roundtable formats. Given the popularity of the sessions, they’re now being held throughout the conference in conjunction with the sessions and by area of mentorship.
Mentorship has been a cornerstone of TiE since its founding: “I have been associated with TiE for a long time and have learned a lot from past entrepreneurs,” said Sanjeev Saxena, President and CEO, POC Medical Inc. “TiE is one place you can come and network with potential mentors who can help you on your journey. I am glad we at POC Medical Systems…were able to have received the help and [are] now able to give back to society.”
Words of Wisdom
At Words of Wisdom, there will be sessions around:
- Seed Funding
- Products & Technology (building and MVP, technology differentiation)
- Business Models
- Venture Funding
- Go-to-Market Strategy
- Market Segment Focus
- Financial Modeling
- Exits, acquisitions, IPOs
- Leadership
To register, entrepreneurs receive details after registering for the conference. The cost of the mentoring sessions is included in the conference pass.
Don’t miss out. Register for TiEcon right here.
Bootcamp for Entrepreneurs
The pre-conference Bootcamp for Entrepreneurs is a one-day workshop with the goal of preparing them for seeking funding and engaging investors. This bootcamp will prepare them to get the most out of the conference ahead. Topics will include fine-tuning your business plan and how to tailor a pitch to appeal to investors and other potential startup collaborators.
This workshop is taught by Naeem Zafar, who teaches entrepreneurship and innovation at UC Berkeley and is a Professor of the Practice at Brown University. Zafar will outline how to seek the right funding from the right source at the right time using his framework published in one of his many books. Participants will attend this workshop in the morning and then compete to be selected as one of the best six to present to a panel of investors that same afternoon. Working in groups with seasoned mentors, finalists will selected using an elimination process that is both fun and instructional.
Startups can apply who meet the following criteria:
1. Must have at least two co-founders
2. Must have completed some initial market research and have a minimum viable product (MVP) or a demo (ideally, companies should also have revenue)
3. Must have existed for at least one year or have raised initial capital
The program cost is $750 and includes a 2-day conference pass (including preferred access to the the Words of Wisdom mentorship sessions) as well as a book on how to start a company and get it funded.
To register, just visit Startup Bootcamp.
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