When Microsoft spent multi-millions to acquire 18 month old Hotmail, co-founded by Indian, Sabeer Bhatia, Kanwal S Rekhi, a US-based venture capitalist, wasn't surprised. To him, it was another success story for 'The indus Entrepreneur' (TiE), a group of successful Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, with roots in the Indian subcontinent.

"TiE had helped Bhatia, not only to kick-start his venture but also to guide its growth," says Rekhi who is now president of TiE.

Hotmail is just one more feather on the cap of the 'entrepreneur incubator initiative' that is TiE. Presently it is associated with more than a dozen such start-ups. Interestingly, TiE just happened, when a fistful of successful Silicon Valley entrepreneurs met by chance in 1992. The idea of was born out of a need to network, foster entrepreneurship and nurture entrepreneurs. A non-profit organization, TiE has helped over 50 start-ups in the US to tide over initial teething problems. What's more, it has swelled its membership list from 40 to 350 many of whom have grown to become mentors, board members and investors in several software firms.

The TiE annual entrepreneurs' conference, a two-day seminar-cum-workshop for would-be entrepreneurs and existing ones to learn the ropes of kick-starting and managing business, has hit off with the infotech geeks in the Silicon Valley, attendance exceeding five hundred, ever since its inception in 1993. "TiE is epitome of free enterprise spirit of Silicon Valley," says Rekhi. And his aim is to replicate this success story in India by opening chapters of TiE in various cities.

Extending the streak of entrepreneurship in India

"It is time India too moved from job preservation to job creation," says Rekhi. And for that Indian entrepreneurs should be ready to take risks. "To start with, entrepreneurs have to realize that innovations have to come from individuals and not institutions. The software sector in India has been complaining of the lack of risk capital. The perception out here is that it is the onus of the financial institutions to provide venture capital for software start-ups, but even in the US 95 per cent of venture funds comes from individuals."

A lesson for Indian entrepreneurs

In 1982, Rekhi, a successful businessman in his own right, co-founded a networking company, Excelan, and became its CEO in 1985. Excelan went public in 1987 and merged with Novell, the networking major in 1989, in a record of sorts, Rekhi became the first Indian to be on the board of a billion-dollar multinational infotech company. Named Entrepreneur of the Year in 1987 by the Arthur-Young/Venture magazine, Rekhi has board-level involvement in several software companies. "For being a successful venture capitalist an individual should be prepared to lose money," says Rekhi.

Changing the Indian scenario

"Before venturing into providing finance for the software sector, the chances of venture capital-funded start-ups succeeding is just one in ten, but the one that makes it big may even give returns thirty to forty times, if not more", warns Rekhi. "What India needs now is change of law to encourage individuals to come forward with risk capital." With the Gurukool concept being embedded in Indian culture, mentoring of start-ups should not be a problem in the Indian business environment, feels Rekhi.

Rekhi expects a TiE chapter to come in Mumbai before the end of the calendar year. "A tie-up with Nasscom, the software industry association, will help TiE to exchange information on Indian software industry and also facilitate visits by Indian entrepreneurs to US to bag more business." To start with Nasscom will take a business delegation from the country to TiE's next entrepreneurial conference in May.

Further, in an effort to woo software professionals into entrepreneurship, Nasscom plans to offer final year IIT students up to Rs 25 lakh in seed money for kick-starting businesses based on "interesting and innovative" ideas in the software sector. "Nasscom has built a venture capital umbrella fund of Rs 1 crore tokick-start new ventures and to help young software companies to market their products," says Dewang Mehta, executive director, Nasscom.