President's Notes, March 2021

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

Dear Friends of TiE DC –

Having been a Charter Member at TiE for over 14 years and serving the TiE DC Board since 2017, I am very excited and honored to lead TiE DC, the premier organization supporting our vibrant entrepreneur community, and connecting us globally with others of similar pursuit.

First and foremost, I want to congratulate Manish Malhotra, CEO of Unissant (President 2020) and all the 2020 board members for their excellent work and accomplishments through the year.

I am also excited to work alongside Pallabi Saboo, CEO of Harmonia Holdings (President-Elect) and all the newly elected 2021 TiE DC board members. I feel fortunate to work with an excellent dedicated team of highly accomplished individuals who are committed to giving back to the community.

Thank you to all our current Charter Members and Members and a warm welcome to everyone who recently joined us. As a member of TiE DC, you are part of the largest global network of entrepreneurs, with 15,000 members in 60 chapters across 17 countries. If you are a seasoned and successful entrepreneur, your joining TiE DC would be a give-back to the community of upcoming entrepreneurs or making new partnerships. So, if you are a Charter Member, a Member, a Corporate member, or wondering whether to join or re-join TiE DC, now is the time to join this fast growing global force.

Our focus for this 2021 is around these five pillars of TiE DC:

• TiE DC GovCon - TiE DC’s flagship event that brings US Federal Government Agencies, CTOs, CIOs, GovCon Contractors Large & Small, Entrepreneurs
• TiE DC Angels - TiE DC’s will continue to nurture the entrepreneurs locally and globally to accelerate their growth.
• Diversity & Inclusivity (D&I) - Support entrepreneurs who are women, Afro American, Latino and other minority
• The Young Entrepreneur (TYE) - TiE DC’s been running TYE for high school students for the past 10 years now. 8 week boot camp in mentoring, coaching high school students to successfully pitch their business idea in DC and Globally.
• TiE University - Mentor and coach University Grads in pitching their Bplan in DC and Globally.

To support our member community, we have been hard at work to develop meaningful programming for this year to foster connections and enable insights for growing businesses. Here are some of the events to look forward to:

• TiE DC Angel Investment pitches
• TiE DC Charter Member Cohorts – Peer groups to help leaders network, get advice, support and guidance
• TiE DC Office Hours – Free Mentoring to founders and businesses
• TiE Tuesdays – Featuring Authors, Speakers, Mentors, Successful Entrepreneurs
• Startup Workshops to help grow and scale startups
• Charter Member and Member mixers
• TiE DC Diversity & Inclusivity - Celebrating Success of Women Entrepreneurs
• TYE Bootcamp – Mentoring & Preparing the Next Generation
• TiE University – Bplan pitches and mentoring of University teams
• TiE BiggieBills Strategy Workshop
• TiE Capital GovCon and CXO Roundtable
• TiE DC President’s Barbecue
• TiE DC Summer Picnic / Wine tasting
• TiE Holiday Gala – December

We hope to have new members join in the fun and for all members to get more engaged with our initiatives. Your ideas and efforts will make TiE DC a vibrant community for growth and partnerships. Please contact any of us on the board directly and help us make TiE DC even more exciting and meaningful.

You can also get in touch with our Executive Director, Jennifer Fortney at [email protected], for any additional questions you might have.

Best wishes,

Sundi Natarajan
TiE DC President
Co-founder Sparksoft Corporation

WELCOME NEW BOARD MEMBER

Nicole Washington is a senior executive with twenty years of experience in policy development and strategic planning, systems design and implementation, and programming for government and other industries. She has been an Information Technology Management Consultant for local and national business firms, including Ernst & Young, LLP where she specialized in the implementation and integration of Enterprise software. Nicole currently serves as a member of the United Nations platform, AI for Good Summit Gender Braintrust. Nicole is also a member of one of the largest Angel Investing Funds in the country where she has been an avid and effective due-diligence team member.

Nicole has extensive experience as a female entrepreneur. She is the Founder & CEO of Boralogix, Inc. a technology consulting firm. Nicole also founded Nicole’s Naturals® Inc., a manufacturing company that specialized in the development of gluten free grain products

Please join me in welcoming Nicole to the 2021 Board of Directors.

2021 BOARD OF DIRECTORS

 PAST EVENTS

NEW REALITY & IMPACT OF COVID 19 ON HIGHER EDUCATION
TiE DC hosted a fireside chat and panel discussion on February 5, 2021. We were thrilled to welcome speakers from renowned U.S. Universities and entrepreneurs & investors from the Education domain who came to share their perspectives on navigating today's challenges in Higher Education.

Our speakers, moderators and panelists for this event were:

• Tim Sands, President, Virginia Tech
• Gregory Washington, President, George Mason University
• Moderator: Pallabi Saboo, Harmonia Holdings
• Vijay Kumar, Dean of Engineering, University of Pennsylvania
• Reena Aggarwal, Director, Center for Financial Markets and Policy, Georgetown University
• Anant Agarwal, Founder & CEO of edX (MIT)
• Frank Bonsal, Managing Partner, Bonsal Capital
• Moderator: Sumeet Shrivastava, CEO & President, Array Information Technology

Missed the event? Watch it on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/u5EHz2qh5-c

Thank you to Array Information Technology for sponsoring this event.

JANUARY CHARTER MEMBER MIXER WITH BOARD OF DIRECTORS

On January 14, 2021, TiE DC hosted a mixer for Charter Members. Our newly elected Board of Directors was in attendance to answer questions, share ideas, and discuss TiE DC's plans for the year. Over 30 members joined us for this lively conversation.

TiE DC ANGEL MEET-UP

Charter Members and Guests attended a virtual meeting to listen to curated pitches from select startups from the DC Metro area, Boston as well as from India. Most of the presenting startups have seed rounds with angel/institutional investors and were looking to add to or close out their existing rounds. Attendees also heard more about the TiE Global Angel Alliance (TGAA).

 ABOUT TYE

THE YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS PROGRAM (TYE)​

TYE is a global program dedicated to fostering future generations of industry leaders by teaching high school students the rewards and challenges of becoming an entrepreneur. TYE is an "Entrepreneurship Academy," where student teams utilize modern skills and tools to build a concept using customer feedback, iteration, and lightweight business models. ​​On February 13, 2021, TiE DC kicked off our 2021 program with 33 students. The program integrates classroom sessions, mentoring, and competitions. Teams will compete at the chapter level and the winners have the opportunity to compete at TYE Global Finals. The Final Results will be announced at an Awards Ceremony on April 25. Best of luck to all of our students!

Thank you to Infinite for sponsoring this program.

TiE UNIVERSITY ENTREPRENEURSHIP COMPETITION

TiE DC is pleased to announce the annual TiE University Entrepreneurship Competitionfor college students across DC, MD and VA. Our FREE competition is open to any college/university student or 2019 and 2020 graduates. Past participants in other chapters have responded with 95+% satisfaction scores due to gaining multiple benefits such as mentoring/coaching by successful real-world entrepreneurs, financial guidance, cash prizes for winning teams ($5,000, $3,000, and $1,000 for first, second, and third place winners, respectively), and access to capital from investors! In addition, there are internship opportunities in summer 2021 for competition participants, as well as access to angel investors for startups. The winning team from TiE DC University Program will be sent to the TiE Global competition and conference (Virtual) in May 2021 together with teams from around the world, including Silicon Valley.

 WELCOME NEW CHARTER MEMBERS

 CALENDAR OF UPCOMING EVENTS

TiE DC Charter Member Cohort - GovCon
March 16, 2021
4:00 PM - 6:00 PM EST

BiggieBills Business Strategy Tournament
March 31, 2021
4:00 PM - 5:30 PM EST

Being Sheela: The Life Journey of an Immigration Lawyer
April 7, 2021
4:00 PM - 5:30 PM EST