Ramamurthy

BURLINGTON, Mass. – A young entrepreneurs segment of the Boston chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs Boston has expanded to bring its program to the global network of TiE.

Known as The Young Entrepreneurs or TyE amongst TiE-Boston members the group was started five years ago and is aimed at nurturing high schoolers' entrepreneurial interests, providing classroom instruction and discussions with TiE members meant to inspire and guide the young entrepreneurs.

TyE Global was formed in January, expanding the popular national entrepreneurship network beyond its Boston roots.

While the group has flourished, TyE had what might be considered humble beginnings. Geetha Ramamurthy, TyE's chairman, recalled her son, Shyam, had a part in the group's formation.

Shyam and a friend hatched the idea for TyE in 2005 during a meeting at Ramamurthy's house in which they discussed how they could devise a way for high school-aged kids like themselves to learn more about and even break into entrepreneurship. They decided to tap into TiE's connections in the business world and the group's knowledgeable membership base as a resource to teach what Ramamurthy calls the next generation of entrepreneurs about the basics of starting a business.

Ramamurthy said that first group of high school students decided that in order to initiate their vision, they would have to be taught the fundamental principles of starting a business. They would also have to capitalize on a quality Ramamurthy says most young adults of that age group tend to have: a natural competitiveness, which Ramamurthy believed would propel them into the business realm.

"We want passion instead of a cookie-cutter approach [to business]. We have to give them a defined curriculum," Ramamurthy recalls saying then.

Boston was used as a pilot program with the idea of eventually expanding TyE to other parts of the country. The program is viewed as beneficial to the parent TiE organization because it has allowed Ramamurthy and Al Kapoor, president of TiE-Boston, to showcase the potential of bringing a younger base to the TiE table. It is their hope that this younger group of fledgling entrepreneurs will stay actively engaged in TiE even after graduating from the TyE program.

The Boston chapter of TyE meets in Burlington every other Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The classes run from September through February, when students apply their newfound knowledge to a project they conceive. This year, the Boston contingent is made up of 35 students, said Ramamurthy. Classes began Sept. 19.

Once the classes are done, entrepreneurs are broken into teams of their own choosing, from as few as two people to larger groups, and are assigned a mentor who will judge the viability of their project concepts.

TyE brings together both young business novices and those whose young age belies their entrepreneurial experience, said Ramamurthy.

Regardless of ability, each chapter member works in concert with the others, from September through April, towards the program's culmination – an entrepreneurial project of the group's design.

Mentors recruited from within the larger TiE network advise each team about their project. Ramamurthy, a former executive director for TiE-Boston, said that at times more than one team has proposed a similar idea, at which point the mentors (who are privy to all the teams' ideas) step in and redirect the projects as necessary. Mentors help teams as they refine their ideas.

The projects are part of a business plan competition that concludes the six-month TyE program. Judges from within the TiE community decide the winners.

Ramamurthy joked that the classes leading up to the project start out with a true entrepreneurs' breakfast: donuts. After the sugar wears off a bit, the work begins, Ramamurthy said. The program is designed to be inspirational and is features weekly presentations by other young entrepreneurs. The program also includes typical classroom instruction in which the students learn vital business skills, including aspects of marketing and prospecting, which, according to Ramamurthy, they do not receive during the regular school day.

A charge of $125 per student to join TyE offsets the cost of food. Young entrepreneurs who have experience with germinating business ideas and writing business plans serve as the backbone of the lecture forum.

This has proved invaluable, said Ramamurthy, because it shows that business "is not an exact science. [Young entrepreneurs] can goof up, too," she said. Ramamurthy knows what it takes to run a business. "I'm an entrepreneur myself, so I ran with the ball" in setting TyE in motion, she said.

Ramamurthy, a Brookline resident and senior vice president of marketing and business development at Venus Capital Management in Boston, joined TiE 11 years ago after meeting Desh Deshpande at the Elk Lodge in Lexington, where TiE meetings were once held. Before becoming involved in TyE, she served as TiE's executive director.

At the completion of the program, the Boston chapter compete against one another to determine which has the best business plan. The winners of that competition earn $10,000 in prize money and the right to compete in the Global Business Plan Competition against a handful of other TyE chapters for a $25,000 prize, said Ramamurthy.

TyE Global, launched in January, now includes chapters in India and the United Kingdom, and will hold an international business competition in April 2010. The five participating teams are: TyE Boston, TyE Carolinas, TyE Seattle, TyE United Kingdom and TyE India.

TyE's global reach will grow exponentially over the next five years, eventually expanding to 53 chapters in 15 countries, according to Ramamurthy. TyE garnered national attention in 2007 when it won the TiE Global Award as the most unique program implemented by TiE.

Ramamurthy said that it is her hope that TyE participants will carry on the tradition of mentoring the next generation of TiE/TyE members.