Organizing the World's largest entrepreneurship conference

Attended the TiEcon 2009 Volunteer's Kickoff Meet at the TiE Santa Clara Office. I had no clue that TiEcon is the largest entrepreneurship conference in the world. To pull-off something this big entirely with a team of volunteers is doubly impressive. The agenda for tonight's meet was simple - to get the crowd of young and old upto speed on what lies ahead.

The TiEcon organizing committee consists of Volunteer Chairs & Co-chairs who manage a team of enthusiastic volunteers. There were interesting pitches from each of the Marketing, Operations, Sales, et.c Chairs as they vied for us Volunteers' attention. The targets too were pretty lofty. They plan on having 4000 attendees at the 2-day event, and expect to collect $1 million in revenue. I have not participated in an event this big, and was happy to be present.

And oh the food, I loooved the gulab jamuns.

My brush with the Santa Clara PD

The evening at PnP was fun. I had met some interesting people, enjoyed the Pizza, and was looking forward to a long bus ride home. Had been a long day and was kinda exhausted.

It was pretty cold waiting at the bus-stop, and the wooden bench didn't look too appealing.. so I sat down on top of the backrest, with my feet on the bench. A few minutes later a Hispanic dude came over, and sat next to me in the same manner. I learned from him that the black thing he was wearing was a durag. He inquired if I knew when the next bus arrived, and I told him that it would be another 10mins. So he called his gf telling her how long it would be before he got home. Then this third guy came over.. he was badly sluggish. We were all waiting for this lone bus to arrive and just waited at the bus-stop watching the cars go by.

Suddenly I noticed this Santa Clara PD car park about 30 feet away from us. Its blue-red flashers came on and two cops jumped out. Killing time was painful, so this new development was kinda cool. I wondered if there was some trouble in the apartment behind us. But these cops came straight towards us. They just started yelling 'Put your hands up'. Ok, they were definitely targeting us. I did as asked, still clueless about what's going on.

As they came closer they kept yelling the same instructions.. probably the other guys hadn't obeyed. I wasn't sure as I was just looking at the cop who was coming towards me. He yelled 'Get down from the bench and sit down'. I did that, and so did the Hispanic bloke who had been sitting next to me. The cop berated us for putting our feet on the bench. I wondered 'Why the yelling?'

Then he yelled to me 'Is that bag yours?' Still clueless about what was going on, I said yes, as I drew my carelessly tossed bag closer. The cop asked us for id. I reached for my wallet and began opening it, and noticed that the cop was no longer interested. He now directed his attention at the Hispanic guy. Meanwhile, I spotted my bus arriving, and casually inquired if I could get on it. The cop said 'You can go'. As I ran towards my bus, which had stopped behind the Police car, I watched the second cop tie the sluggish guy's hands behind his back. The cop was yelling something at him while the guy protested mildly.

I don't know what happened to the Hispanic guy but neither of them got on the bus with me. I still have no clue what this was about. I think I was let go because I was dressed in formals, obeyed as directed, and had id.

As I sat in the bus headed home I pondered how the scene would have unfolded differently had I responded with the memorable line from Basic Instict: 'What are you gonna do, arrest me?'

Building a Brand

Attended two events at the PnP's Sunnyvale facility today. The first was their monthly Mashup - an open gathering for job-seekers to network with startups that are PnP tenants. It was fun to watch startup founders, some novices, some seasoned, make their pitch to a room crowded with people, all kinds of people, including investors. One person from Google stood out - he proudly wore his id and walked around the room giving his business card to the founders. He didn't speak much, and I have no idea what his role was, but watching him saunter about was fun. I liked MO's presentation. It was crisp and humorous, and he alone seemed like a person who'd be fun to work with.

Later, I headed to the PnP Web 2.0 Meetup. I think its a pretty cool move to host open gatherings like these and have beer, soda and pizza for attendees. The folks from Evernote were in attendance, and it was nice to hear Phil share his experience of getting funded just before the cash ran out. There's no doubt they've built a fine product, and they're equally enthusiastic about building their brand.

It was interesting to note how the cool looking elephant logo has helped them get favorable attention. Apparently, the Evernote logo is so attractive that even the folks at Apple love it.. and that resulted in it showing up in the iPhone promos. Sweet.

The graceful Namaste

Caught up with VM at Bojam's space in the PnP. We hadn't met since our first meeting in September, and it was fun catching up with him.

As most startup entrepreneurs are very well-networked, I casually inquired whether he knew the folks at a startup for kids. And VM goes, "You mean the guys next door?" Apparently the team had recently moved in as Bojam's neighbors. I was pretty surprised with how well things had turned out for the team, and stopped over to say Hello.

After wishing VM luck as he leaves for India to recruit techies for his team, I dashed to Stanford's Skilling Auditorium. They have the Entrepreneurial Thought Leadership Seminar Series every Wednesday. I got into a capacity-packed auditorium to watch the last 10mins of the Q&A with the team from CoolIris. The discussion was about how they involved about 40 interns in building their product. At one point they even had more interns than full-time employees. They must really have had something amazing going.

It was also SB's b'day and the audience sang and clapped for him. I liked his graceful Namaste to the crowd as we thanked the team for their time and presence.

Feasting on Indian Food

Saum's parents are visiting him. Its been 10yrs since we met, and it felt terrific to see them again.

And there was terrific Indian food. Plus plenty of Indian sweets and dessert. I dunno how I managed to pack so much in, but I really enjoyed eating every morsel.

And then we went grocery shopping to the Indian store. I was really on a guilt trip when picking up the pre-cooked Puran Polis.

Got home and organized my room, finally. I think being in buoyant spirits helped.

19yr old CEOs

A number of startups were recruiting enthusiasts at the Stanford Computer Forum Job Fair today. I too stepped inside the enclosure erected on the Sequoia Plaza Lawn. Met some very enthusiastic CEOs, of which some hadn't even graduated yet. They all shared a tremendous sense of self-confidence and optimism. Interestingly, its easy to differentiate a first-time entrepreneur from a serial entrepreneur, the latter just seem a lot more restrained, and composed.

10 People Companies

Was ambling around Mountain View today. I just decided to drop into all the offices where I knew people who worked there - unannounced. Stupid idea.

I basically ended up meeting nobody. Firstly, it came as an interesting surprise that with all the sophisticated entry systems in place, you can't even enter an office, because someone has to be expecting you to let you in. And it doesn't help when most phones go to voicemail, while you stand at the door, dialing your contact.

Anyways, with some time on hand, just hanging around worked to my advantage. Somebody would usually be stepping out or entering, and I'd eventually get inside to learn that the person I wanted to meet wasn't in office.

The good thing about startups is that they're different. One place had music blaring in the workplace for all to enjoy. Furniture in one was usually sparse and colorful, and another had the walls adorned with valued customer speak. I felt kinda weird that every word I spoke was audible to everyone in the room. I don't think anybody cared, but it was different from my experience back home, but then that experience was with a multi-billion dollar, hundred thousand people strong company too.