TyE-Boston (TiE Young Entrepreneurs) launched its 7th session, last week, September 10, 2011 at MIT in partnership with MIT-SASE (Society of Asian Scientists & Engineers) with over 120 attendees. This year, there has been a record interest in the program with over 70 applications out of which 40 students have been selected for TyE Class of 2012.

MIT-SASE leaders Arun Saigal and Kristin Kagetsu welcomed the TyE group to MIT and gave an introduction to the society and its activities. They also inspired the TyE students to think of MIT as an educational destination and SASE as a group to help fulfill their engineering and scientific dreams.

The event commenced with an introductory session about the program by the TyE committee members. This was followed by a short talk by the TyE Alums who discussed how the TyE program was a life changing experience and how it helped them fulfill their entrepreneurial dreams. One TyE Alum team from 2009, Green Chilies shared their experience of how TyE helped them launch their business idea of Green TV into a real venture. Green Chilies recently won the Green Award in a Business Plan competition organized by the Green Organization and are headed to the House of Commons in London to receive this award in November this year.

The highlight of the event was Guest Speaker, Jason Jacobs, Co-founder & CEO of a young startup company, RunKeeper. As Jason narrated his entrepreneurial story, he shared his childhood dream of being a successful entrepreneur one day. He reminisced about his 1st venture - shoveling driveways in his neighborhood at the age of ten.  Although this paved the way for his entrepreneurial journey, when the time came to give up a comfortable job, it took bold decisions, great deal of hard work and sacrifices to plunge in. Jason talked of how he built his venture around a passion of his, which is fitness. At first he did not know how it would develop but small steps taken carefully with a sense for the customer and what worked for his team has brought RunKeeper to be where they envisioned in the market place.

He advised TyE students to start small, stay within their means and dream of growing constantly yet cautiously.  Jason is a great role model for the new class of TyE students inspiring them to think creatively.

The event also included creative and fun exercises for the new TyE students and got them thinking like entrepreneurs , conducted by the TyE Curriculum Chairs, Zahra Kanji and Love Sarin,

The TyE program has become, a place to be, for many aspiring entrepreneurs from high school who find it highly useful for the lessons they acquire for life. During the program, students attend interactive discussions and workshops on Saturday mornings which are led by industry experts and entrepreneurs. Students work in groups to develop an idea into a viable business plan to present to a panel of judges at the end of the program.  They are coached by serial entrepreneurs in different aspects of business to gain an in-depth understanding of entrepreneurship as they work on their business plans for the final competition.  They participate and work towards winning 3 prizes as part of the TyE-Boston 10K Business Plan Competition.  

Since the inception of TyE in 2005 in Boston, over 200 students have participated in the program from over 25 local schools in New England. The TyE program was adopted by TiE-Global in 2009 and continues to gain momentum across other TiE chapters. Last year, 9 TiE chapters ran the TyE Program; that number has expanded this year to 19 TiE chapters globally. Each chapter will hold its local TyE competition and the winner from all TyE chapters will participate in the TyE-Global competition in April 2012.

We thank sponsors, parents and the TyE organizing committee members for their hard work and support in making the TyE program a grand success. We are very excited with the launch of this year's class and looking forward to another year of activities, fun and some great business ideas!

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