TiE Young Entrepreneurs (TyE) Boston is seeking highly motivated high school students with a passion for business and entrepreneurship! Applications are now open for the Class of 2014-15. Click here for more information on the application process.

Many TyE alumni have had great successes since the inception of TyE. Here are just two recent stories.

Rahul Shah, TyE Class of 2009, won the first Jit Saxena TiE Challenge Award for his company Speare as the top champion. Rahul is the first TyE alum to get accepted into TiE Challenge, TiE Boston's accelerator program. Speare, not only scored the highest amongst judges but also won the popular vote in the TiE Challenge Open Mic at TiECON East in May 2014. 

Rahul Shah and his partner Neil Cholli won second place with their business idea, Mellodi, for which they later were also granted a patent  in 2009. Mellodi provided a platform allowing artists to efficiently promote their music directly to the right suited audience. Rahul's drive to create technology that helps people connect to information and the media in a more meaningful way was the inspiration for starting Speare in 2013.

Speare is based out of Cornell University where Rahul is currently a sophomore. The company’s mission is to help news and media companies engage with their customers by intelligently summarizing and tracking topics that are important to the user. The startup is currently part of Cornell's eLab accelerator program and has already started integrating its software with an early set of sites.

When asked how TyE had helped shaped his ideas, Rahul said, “The skills and experience that I first picked up during TyE are proving to still be very relevant, and critically important in helping push Speare forward.” 

Arun Nijhawan and Kartik Shastri, TyE Classes of 2006 and 2008, pitched to investors at the Leader Bank TiE Sharks event at TiECON East 2014 and successfully raised money for their start-up company TalkTop.

The rewarding experience of their first TyE business plan idea led Kartik and Arun to participate in TyE program again with an idea for an online app that would aid aspiring cooks with a repository of recipes for nutritious food. 6 years later the two have pivoted their idea into TalkTop, which automates nutrition tracking and provides real-time guidance to empower people to achieve their dietary goals. Arun and Kartik have won multiple business plan competitions and are incubated in Tim Draper's HeroCity in San Mateo, California.

As a word of advice to the next generation, Arun and Kartik say, "Start doing something. Have the audacity to believe in your idea, and you'll learn from the right people along the way. Don't wait for someone to tell you to start - the time to start is now!" A great way to start is to participate in TiE-Boston's TyE program.

During the program, students attend interactive discussions and workshops led by industry experts and entrepreneurs on Saturday mornings. The program concludes with a 10K Business Plan competition where TyE teams pitch their business plans to a panel of judges at the Annual TyE Gala. The winning team from Boston then participates in the TyE-Global Business Plan competition.

TyE-Boston is now inviting applications from highly motivated high school students for its 2015 Class! Applications are open until 12:00 pm (noon) August 15, 2014. If you would like to learn more about the program, click here. For questions call  617-225-0419

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