Ziggy Tek: It seems definitely like a sound that would appeal to any baby but when the winning team of Shane Lampert, Jay Mayur, Neil Mayur and Aashish Sharma, appeared on stage to receive their  check of $10,000 donated by Microsoft from Ramadorai, CEO, TCS and Chairman of Nasscom, there was tremendous applause from the large audience. The event was held at the TiECON East Banquet dinner at the Copley Marriot Hotel on June 16^th 2006. Ziggy Tek, a baby monitoring device that helps alert parents to monitor their child’s fever, was the winning business idea for this year TYE (TiE Young Entrepreneurs), initiative launched in late 2005 from TiE Boston.

It was a night of celebration and entertainment mixed with accomplishments as participants waited with bated breath while Oscar Jazdowski, TiE charter member introduced the program and the participants to the audience saying “what we learnt here was how impressive these students are in their written and oral presentation.” Geeta Ramamurthy, quoting Abdul Kalam’s vision for youth said she was inspired by his words on her visit to India and that vision was translated into action with this initiative.

The Program geared for young students between the ages of 14 to 18 years is designed for aspiring youngsters who from an early age want to become entrepreneurs. Initially called “How to do a business plan “it soon became  TYE (TiE Young Entrepreneurs), a forum of about 30 students trying to understand the nuances of how to formulate a business plan, research industry segments and use methods to approach and analyze business. Spread over a period of 16 weeks, the students were split into 6 teams of 2 to 5 students who met with a mentor and learned skills that would probably be best learnt at a business school. The final result was presented to a panel of 5 judges consisting of two lawyers, two venture capitalists and a charter member who listened and zeroed in on the winner: in this case the Ziggy Tek team who were  mentored by Moshe Shavit.

Overall the business ideas of the participants were varied and interesting ranging from  maximizing airline trips for travelers, to online tutoring and safer windshields. To all those who were watching especially the younger students it was an inspiring and motivational event to witness and hopefully participate in the future.

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