Thrust on entrepreneurship, startup ecosystem in Bangladesh

 A 3-member delegation from Bangladesh participated in TiE Inflect 2018 (formerly known as TiEcon), the largest conference for tech entrepreneurs, held recently at the Santa Clara Convention Center, Silicon Valley, USA.

The conference attracted more than 5,000 attendees and conference tracks included AI, Blockchain, CyberSecurity, and FinTech, said a statement.

The Bangladesh delegation was led by Shameem Ahsan, President of TiE Dhaka and Chairman of eGeneration Group.

Other members of the delegation  were Shawkat Hossain, Secretary General of Venture Capital and Private Equity Association of Bangladesh (VCPEAB) and Managing Director, BD Ventures Limited and Zakaria Swapon, Founder and CEO of iPay Systems Ltd.

The delegation had meetings with TiE Founding members including Co-founder and past Chairman of TiE, Kanwal Rekhi; Co-Founder and former TiE Global Chairman Suhas S Patil and the current TiE Global Chairman Nitin Rai.Kanwal is credited as the first Indo-American Founder & CEO to take his venture-backed company, Excelan public on the NASDAQ. He also served in Novell as an Executive Vice-President and the Chief Technology Officer. Suhashad been TiE's first President in 1992.

In the meetings, the delegation discussed how entrepreneurship and startup ecosystem in Bangladesh can be fostered through TiE's network, access to industry trends and information and mentoring. They accepted the invitation extended by the delegation to visit Bangladesh and collaborate in programmes targeting the young entrepreneurs and startups of Bangladesh.

Building on the twenty-five years’ legacy of TiEcon, TiE has designed TiE Inflect 2018 to focus on the business and human impact of AI. Keynote speakers included Dr.Romesh Wadhwani, Chairman and CEO, Symphony Technology Group, HadiPartovi, CEO, Code.org; Jay Chaudhry, CEO, Chairman and Founder, Zscaler; Jyoti Bansal, CEO and Co-Founder, Harness and Thomas Kurian, President, Product Development, Oracle.

TiE is a non-profit, global community, founded in 1992 by a group of successful entrepreneurs and is currently the world’s largest entrepreneurial organisation.

TiE Dhaka was founded in 2014 by Shameem Ahsan and Sonia Bashir to support the Dhaka entrepreneurs with mentoring, networking, educating, incubating, and funding.

Since it’s inception, TiE Dhaka consists of a vibrant community of successful entrepreneurs as Charter Members.

-rmc//