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TiE Goes to Bush Country

Arthur J Pais in Dallas

When The Indus Entrepreneurs opens a chapter in Dallas-Fort Worth later this month, it should send reminders to entrepreneurs from the subcontinent that there is a significant number of ethnic success stories outside the Silicon Valley, says Kanwal Rekhi, TiE's national president and co-founder.

"Our success story in Silicon Valley is outstanding," he says. "But when we say TiE is a national organization, we mean it, and that is why we have active chapters in New York and Boston," he continues. "Soon we should have chapters not only in the Midwest and in the Virginia-Washington area but also in Canada and the United Kingdom," he said, adding, "At TiE, we always think globally."

The Dallas-Fort Worth chapter has been in the works for several months. With George W Bush emerging as the front-runner presidential candidate in the Republican Party, and his several visits to Silicon Valley galvanized the formalization of the new TiE chapter.

Eight-year-old TiE, which has about 1,000 members, often gets a parenthetical mention in high-tech success stories in such major publications as The Wall Street Journal and BusinessWeek.

'Yet its record as a picker of high-tech racehorses deserves more attention and is a testimony to the powerful role of South Asians in the Silicon Valley story. Nearly nine per cent of the 4,063 high-tech companies started in Silicon Valley between 1995 and 1998 were Indian-led,' BusinessWeek wrote in a feature on TiE last month.

In comparison, Indians started only four per cent of the 2,264 companies created between 1985 and 1989, according to AnnaLee Saxenian, professor of regional development at the University of California at Berkeley. Saxenian has studied immigrant entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley for the Public Policy Institute of California, it pointed out.

"Each success story connected with TiE is a tribute to the guru-chela tradition we consciously foster at TiE," Rekhi says. "TiE is not so much about investment or finding angel investors as it is about passing the torch to newer people in the Valley and beyond it."

TiE, which has had a hand in the creation of such high-profile firms as Exodus Communications, HotMail, CyberMedia, Junglee, Vision Software and Ambit Design, and has 200 senior, or "charter," members who have invested at least $ 100 million personally in young companies, paving the way for another $ 400 million in venture investment, according to BusinessWeek.

The October 21 event at Westin Galleria Hotel will have Safi Qureshey, the founder of AST Computers, as the keynote speaker. Safi is president of the Southern California chapter of TiE. Scheduled Speakers are Kanwal Rekhi, TiE national president, and Krish Prabhu, CEO, Alcatel USA.

Qureshey, cofounder and former CEO and Chairman of AST Research, Inc, a personal computer manufacturer, is involved with several start-up technology companies as a board member and angel investor.

Through his involvement in TiE and the newly-founded CEO Emeritus Group, he is active in helping Southern California entrepreneurs. AST, with more than $ 2.6 billion annual revenue, is operating in over 100 countries. A leader in upgradeable PCs, multiple brands, two-tier distribution, it was acquired by Samsung Electronics Co two years ago. Qureshey stepped down as chairman of AST three months ago.

Twenty years ago, AST was started like many other Silicon success stories -- as a garage-based three-men operation.

Albert Wong, Safi Qureshey and Tom Yuen's first plan was to produce enhancement boards for original IBM PCs, improving system speed and flexibility. By the time AST introduced its first personal computer in 1986, it already had a reputation for quality, innovative technology, manufacturing expertise and superior service. And it would soon become a member of Fortune's 500 List of America's largest industrial and service companies.

A member of President Clinton's Export Council, Qureshey advises technocrats and policy makers on ways to grow the export of US products and services globally. Keenly interested in economic issues, he founded the Corporate Council on Africa to promote business between the United States and African nations.

He has been recognized as one of the top 25 executives by Computer Reseller News and as Portable Pioneer by PC Laptop Magazine. Other honors include 1993 Distinguished Alumnus, University of Texas, Arlington; 1994 International Entrepreneur of the Year, University of Illinois, Carbondale; and 1995 UCI Medal, the highest honor conferred by University of California, Irvine.

Qureshey was a Regent's Professor at the Graduate School of Management, University of California, Irvine, for the winter quarter 1998.

Admission $ 20. Membership sign-up will be available at the launch event. Annual membership fee is $ 100, payable by cash or check to TiE-DFW.

For additional information, contact Akram Syed at (972) 235-5555 or info@tie-dfw.org.visit the TiE web site at http://www.tie.org

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