Guru Speak @ TiE: Entrepreneur & the team most important in a venture

This intimate session saw audiences take to the floors, when the seats were filled up, and what followed was a tte--tte between the masters and the disciplines. The key thought that came from the speakers was that entrepreneurship is all about sweat and toil, but rewards more than meet the hardships. And while investing in a venture, investors put a premium on quality of the entrepreneur and the core team.

Said Mr Rekhi, In a new venture, I always look for the team. Thats the most important thing for me. Everything else is manageable, but not the core people. So I take a lot of time in knowing people that I wish to invest in.
Serial entrepreneur Mr Raman Roy echoed the sentiments, Entrepreneur is most important element of investment strategy.

Addressing wannabe entrepreneurs at the session, all three speakers started by recounting their entrepreneurial journeys.

In 1967, Mr Rekhi graduated as an electrical engineer from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India and in 1969 he received a Master of Science degree from Michigan Technological University. He worked as an engineer, systems analyst, and manager for many years before floating his first company, Excelan in 1982. Excelan was a manufacturer of smart Ethernet cards, and was also responsible for the commercial growth of the internet protocol TCP/IP. The company merged with, and was acquired by Novell in 1989 and Mr Rekhi was given a seat on the board. He gave US $3 million to IIT Bombay to help set up a new School of Information Technology, named KReSIT (Kanwal Rekhi School of Information Technology), which opened in 1999.

Mr Rekhi said that entrepreneurs should be ready to toil and sweat to make their dreams come true. Said Mr Rekhi, As an entrepreneur, you should be like that duck which paddles very hard under the water, but is very calm outside.

Sharing his journey, Mr Raman Roy said, I took the plunge into the brave world of entrepreneurship because I had the right idea, a track-record and backing of my family. It turned out all well in the end. Mr Roy was a successful executive at American Express and GE before he ventured out on his own as a third party BPO company. The company was later acquired by Wipro, and since then Mr Roy has moved on to start another venture Quatrro.