TiE Silicon Valley embarks on a new path of diversity, involves youth and women and aims to go global: Anita Manwani

Santa Clara: Indian American-dominated TiE Silicon Valley, has embarked on a new path of diversifying and inclusiveness by focusing on other communities and having women and youths’ greater involvement in its activities.

Founded in 1992 by eminent Indian Americans, TiE Silicon Valley has created and enabled entrepreneurs who have generated over USD 1T in wealth and built successful businesses in technology.

Over the past three decades, it has emerged as the pioneering and most influential tech group not only in the US but also across the world.

Anita Manwani, who is the first woman president of TiE Silicon Valley in its more than 32 years of history, believes that the time has come to give it a new direction.

“This is no longer just an Indus conference. It is an international conference with lots of women who are representing VCs, women speakers, CEOs and founders of AI companies, and many, many different folks...this year actually 39 per cent of our speakers are non-Indus,” Manwani told PTI on the sidelines of the just concluded TiECon, its annual conference, in Santa Clara, California.

Considered to be the flagship annual conference of TiE Silicon Valley, TiECon since 2008 is widely considered the world's largest conference for entrepreneurs.

A seasoned corporate executive and entrepreneur, Manwani is one of 80 women recognised in the United States for their leadership in technology, and top 100 Women of influence in Silicon Valley.

Ahead of the annual gathering of entrepreneurs and VCs, TiE Silicon Valley partnered and collaborated with other organisations, so that “we could bring their startups and we could engage their members to come and attend TiECon,” she said.

“So, it's not been just a flip of a switch or the act of digital marketing, which we've done a great job of this year. But it's also been the road leading up to TiECon and our collaborations with other organisations in Silicon Valley and throughout the world,” Manwani said.

Responding to a question on India, Manwani said that India is becoming such a big force in the explosion and the revolution of AI; both from the semiconductor Renaissance and in terms of Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi's focus on supporting so many startups. In fact, at this conference, based on a relationship that TiE Silicon Valley has, TiECon had the participation of 30 Indian startups.

They had an interaction with the top VCs and also had a tour of Meta headquarters. “We have great confidence in these startups. These startups are doing some amazing work both in the area of EV batteries, in the area of education, and also in the area of agritech. So these are some amazing startups,” she said.

Noting that she is “blown away” by the Indian startup talent after her meetings with them, Manwani said: “The world is really become democratized in how they're dealing with AI. Certainly, India is one of the leaders there along with the US and so everybody speaking the same language." They are really focused on making sure that their solutions are solving local problems. And once they solve that, if you can solve a problem for India, you can take that problem and solve it anywhere globally. Because these agritech solutions, the EV battery solutions, are going to be universal innovations that will help everybody in their carbon footprint,” she said.